


Falling Upward

by Komodo23



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Awata Kaoruko needs A Hug, Bakugou Katsuki Being an Asshole, Digidestined Awata Kaoruko, Digidestined Midoriya Izuku, Digimon pretending to be a quirk, Good Parent Midoriya Inko, It's Digimon, Izuku and Bubble Girl are basically siblings, Midoriya Izuku Needs A Hug, Multi, Not perfect, Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, Rated for foul language, Summer camp gone awry, Tags May Change, To both's parents confusion, What Did You Expect, but she tries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23031253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Komodo23/pseuds/Komodo23
Summary: When he was 4 years old, Izuku Midoriya was diagnosed as quirkless. His dreams are crushed, his family fragmented and his still faraway future is already bleak.When he was 8 years old, his mother decided to make him attend a summer camp while she is out of town for work. He returns home with an odd companion quirk, mild paranoia, and nightmares.
Relationships: Awata Kaoruko | Bubble Girl & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Terriermon, Midoriya Izuku & Tokoyami Fumikage, Midoriya Izuku/Shiozaki Ibara, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Terriermon & Dark Shadow
Comments: 45
Kudos: 122





	1. Anxiety

Inko Midoriya was a worrywart.

That was something that anyone that had known her for more than ten minutes could easily tell, and was something she had been keenly aware of herself since she was a child. Her sensitivity and constant state of anxiety made it so much harder to make friends and enjoy playing with other children; whenever one of them got so much as a scraped knee, she had a miniature panic attack and started fretting over them. Some of her playmates found it funny when she started pulling band-aids and disinfectant out of her backpack at every occasion. 

Most just thought she was annoying.

She had grown out of it over the years, of course. Not so much about the worrying part in itself, but she gained a better sense of scope over what was really worthy panicking over and what was not.

Any and all progress she had made by the time she was 26, happily married to her college boyfriend Hisashi Midoriya, drenched in sweat and sore all over, had gone out of the window in spectacular fashion the moment she first laid eyes on her tiny, quiet newborn son, Izuku. All of the sudden, the edges of every single piece of furniture in her hospital room looked ten time sharper, the nails on her own hands were way too long, and the arms of the nurse who had just passed her Izuku looked so skeletal she couldn't fathom how they hadn’t dropped her baby on the ground the instant they took hold of him.

By the time her husband had finally pacified her enough that she could apologize to the the mildly traumatized nurse she had nearly assaulted, all the excitement and excruciating effort of the day finally caught up with her. As she started drifting off to sleep, her thoughts wandered to the uncertain future and the limitless worries that she knew it would bring, and the ball of anxiety that had been settled in her stomach since she was a child started roiling. But as she closed her eyes, she caught a glimpse of her husband looking over their child with a smile, and she allowed herself to relax. 

She would make sure Izuku grew up surrounded by people that loved him. All she could do was believe her child’s future was going to be bright, and lull herself to sleep with her own little mantra she used whenever her anxiety threatened to consume her,

‘Everything is going to be fine.’

‘ _ Everything  _ is going to be  _ fine _ .’

‘ _ Everything... _

_

  
  


“I’m afraid there is no hope for him.”

The squeaking sound of her four-year old son bouncing excitedly in his seat came to an abrupt stop, and the entire world around her seemed to still. The intervals between the ticking of the clock on the wall bloated to a small eternity each, while the bustling of hospital nurses and visitors from just outside the door became noise from another planet entirely. The only constant was her own heartbeat pounding furiously through her head and in her ears.

She was broken out of her reverie by the sound of something clattering on the floor just beside her. When she turned to see the vacant, heartbroken expression that had etched itself on Izuku’s face, she felt like the ball in her stomach had grown sharp, cold spikes, digging in her insides, going right through her heart and lodging themselves in her throat.

At his feet, laying on the cold tiles of the doctor’s study, was the All Might toy Izuku had insisted on bringing with him, the plastic of one of its signature tufts of hair snapped cleanly in half. 

“There… there must be some mistake. True, the other children at the kindergarten have all started showing some signs, but maybe he’s just a late bloomer? Or maybe his quirk is just not very visible?” She tried to reason with the man, her tone bordering on pleading.

Her mind was already an agonizing whirlwind of worries and fears. Memories of her own childhood, of the sheer, simple happiness of the discovery of her quirk, and the proud smiles on her parents face. She remembered the excited gleam in the eyes of her husband the first time they really talked to each other a lifetime ago, his childlike curiosity and passionated stream of questions making her fall for him a little. He had been the first person to ever show such interest and joy for her admittedly drab quirk, and it had made her feel all the more special because of it.

A few seconds before, those had been happy, cherished memories that never failed to warm her heart. 

Now they felt like cold mud running through her veins.

Forcing herself to snap out of her thoughts, she focused back on the doctor as he sighed, rubbing his eyes under his glasses, and started a brief explanation about adaptive mutations and pinky toes or the lack thereof. It mostly went above Inko’s head, but she had the presence of mind to take Izuku’s tiny, fragile hand in her own, squeezing softly in a futile attempt to console him and, to a degree, to selfishly ground herself.

However, he didn’t squeeze back until much later, when the doctor finished compiling the documents of the diagnosis to be forwarded to the Quirk Registry Office, and stamped down the date with a noise not unlike a gunshot that made Izuku flinch in her hand. The shell-shocked expression on his face and the excruciating emptiness in his eyes never left as they exited the hospital and remained during the entirety of their trip home.

It was only some hours later when she found him in their computer room watching his favourite All Might video that he finally broke down and cried himself to sleep in her arms, his dreams thoroughly crushed while she murmured a quiet chant of apologies and “I love you” in his curls, even while she felt like the walls of their own home threatened to cave in and suffocate them.

As she tucked him to bed, she tried to steel herself, and prepared to break the news to Hisashi. Passionate about quirks as he was, she knew it was going to be a terrible blow for him. He had been drafting and writing down every possible combination of theirs and their families’ quirks on his treasured notebooks since Izuku was born. The most recent one was littered with scribbles and childish sketches of flames and unintelligible floating objects courtesy of Izuku himself; working on the pages together had quickly become her husband’s favourite bonding activity with their son. That very morning, before going to work, he had been prancing excitedly around the house at the thought of the doctor’s appointment even more than Izuku himself, and had kissed her goodbye with a smile on his face and more fervor than he had shown in months. If she was so pained by the news, she knew he would be utterly devastated. She would need to be the strong one, at least for a while.

But she needed to have faith that they would get past it. Izuku would have both his parents’ absolute, undiscussed support, and, even as brash as he appeared, she knew that Mitsuki’s son would also continue to be there for him like he had been until now. And the admittedly rather aggressive protective streak Katsuki had inherited from his mother was probably going to be exactly what quiet, timid Izuku would need in the foreseeable future to defend himself against the jeering and hurtful words of other children that didn’t know better.

Izuku would always have someone standing by his side, be it his parents, his friends or his teachers. They weren’t going to face this alone. She needed to remember that. She couldn’t give in to her own roiling, unreasonable anxieties.

_ Everything is going to be fine. _

-

Almost a year later, Inko returned from leaving Izuku at school to an empty home.

As she dropped the shopping bag she had with her on the kitchen table, she studiously tried to ignore the many, many spots that had emptied themselves on the walls and furniture, then walked to her bedroom. This time she  _ almost _ managed to ignore how the half of the shelves of her wardrobe had become empty and covered in a thin layer of dust, and she  _ almost _ didn’t pay attention to the box tucked at the bottom, where she had hidden most of the photos once scattered around the apartment. 

Almost.

But she just couldn’t. 

Each reminder of the fallout between her and her… almost ex-husband was a new blow to her chest, but like always she just stood there for a few minutes, staring at the box where she had hid away most of the tangible, real proof she had of a happiness that just a few months before she had taken for granted, a constant she could trust in no matter what her anxiety whispered in her ear. She should probably hid them better, so that she wouldn’t just spend so much time staring at it, or throw it away like she promised herself every other week, but…

She just couldn’t.

If she did, Izuku would be the only other reminder left of him. And she feared that the pain and shame she felt whenever she stared at that box would rear its ugly head whenever she looked at Izuku instead.

She wouldn’t have been able to bear it.

Tearing herself away from the box, she walked away from the wardrobe and out of room with purpose. She pressed the “on” button of her computer and made a mental checklist of what little freelance editing gigs she had found for the day, and reminded herself to see if her lawyer had sent her any news regarding the proceedings of the divorce in the mail. The whole process was already complicated and stressful in itself; it was only exacerbated by the fact that Hisashi had become a lot harder to keep track of even for his own legal since he had moved to the United States. 

While she waited for the screen to boot up, she went in the kitchen and opened one of the bags of cheap cookies she had bought on her way home. While she munched on it, she hid the other bags in the tallest cupboard of her kitchen, securely hidden away from Izuku’s prying eyes. It had already been a couple of months already since she had started keeping her secret stash, and so far she was sure he had not even an idea it was there at all. After she finally put the last bag in its place, she took another from the opened one and walked back to the computer, chewing unenthusiastically.

She really wasn’t hungry; eating like that often left her feeling bloated by the time dinner came up, even though she tended to skip lunch along the way but she found that it was a good way to quiet the rumbling ball of anxiety gnawing at her insides while she worked. At least it was better than biting her own nails to pieces; keeping _ that _ up was harder to hide, and would have set a bad example for Izuku in the long run. Also, Mitsuki, always the model, had noticed it right away, and scolded her for five minutes straight for “not properly taking care of herself”. So, cookies. Easier to hide.

After Hisashi had left, Mitsuki, bless her heart, had tried to be as present as she could, visiting her every day for weeks, and generally turning up the frequency of dinner invites. Sadly, despite their attempts to help, her and her husband clearly couldn’t make up for what was missing from her own, and especially Izuku’s life. It became clearer by the day as all their propositions to keep Izuku distracted by having him over at their place for a playdate with Katsuki after school or a sleepover were met with increasing reticence on Izuku’s part. 

It probably also had to do with how much the little blond loved to play around with his still slightly unstable quirk, sometimes even accidentally leaving small burn marks on Izuku’s clothes, and the fact that, after she had brought it up with Mitsuki, her husband, Masaru, had started to teach Katsuki how to control his quirk better, having inherited the explosive facet of it from him. Seeing Katsuki spend time learning about his quirk with his father probably really hurt Izuku, prodding at far too recent wounds, even though he still believed Hisashi would come back home soon. Not even two weeks after Hisashi had left their home, Izuku had already started his own notebooks on quirks to show his father once he returned.

When he showed her the first pages he had filled with disorganized scribbles and a messy drawing of Katsuki’s explosions, and asked her if she thought  _ “dad will like it when he comes back” _ , she had felt her heart snap in half in her chest. To her regret, she had not managed to keep it from showing on her face, and Izuku, who was showing more and more signs of having inherited her sharp empathy, had noticed immediately.

He had not brought up the notebook with her ever since, and she only knew he was still writing in it because of the few times he forgot it in his room while at school.

She just couldn’t stop messing up, could she?

She had failed him three times at once when she couldn’t even grant him even a weak quirk. First depriving him of a father, Hisashi’s angry yells that the fault for their son condition was hers and her own quirk’s weakness still engraved in her memory; then depriving him of his dream to become a hero; and third, the most damning of them all, making him an outcast to the rest of a society that would see him as defective for as long as he lived. 

Then she had failed him again when he tried to confide in her; she wasn’t strong enough to not show her hurt, and now he rarely, if ever, talked with her about his own hurt feelings. Sometimes, the few days where he let the hurt openly show, if she prodded him enough he would still open up and cry, talking about the jeering of the other kindergarten kids, and how the teachers rarely let him play with his classmates, afraid that his lack of quirk could cause him to get hurt by the emerging powers of his peers. Despite how much it was hurting Izuku, she couldn’t legitimately get really angry at them for that; after all, they were just trying to keep Izuku safe. 

Also, he was hardly the only child that was kept isolated for reasons related to quirks. Kids with family histories that suggested the chance of them inheriting particularly destructive powers were also kept separated from the others and assigned to specialized teachers capable of handling them if anything happened. 

She still shivered thinking back at the horror stories of quirk manifestations going horribly wrong she had read while doing her research to find a good kindergarten for her son. 

Besides, it was only temporary. 

By the same time next year, Izuku would be in elementary school, where most of the children would have had at least a few months to learn properly control their powers, making it much safer for her son to interact with them. And the same could be said for Katsuki. As soon as he managed to get an handle on his quirk, she was sure Izuku would run back to him and their group of friends, going over his house and playing heroes together in the local playgrounds together like nothing ever changed.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the computer’s start-up jingle as it finished turning on, and she shook her head before sitting down and opening her personal mail. As she scrolled through the inbox, she bit her lip as she noticed the lack of new messages from her lawyer, and quickly scarfed down another cookie before her thoughts could spiral out of control again. 

As she chewed, she switched to her business address, and she was pleasantly surprised to find she had received a few more commissions than usual, and one of them, a surprisingly sizable and well remunerated one at that, was from a small publisher that had already hired her just a couple weeks prior.

As she scanned the details of the job, she allowed herself a little smile.

Things might look bleak now, but she had faith. Her and Izuku just needed to hold on for a little longer, and things would be better.

Everything; sooner or later; one way or another; was going to be fine.

-

Inko stared down the instant coffee in the mug in front of her, putting her phone aside. Through the steam flowing out of it, she could still make up a solitary solid chunk staring back at her, defiantly refusing to melt. She let her head fall in her hands, and let out a deep groan.

When, almost two years before, she had received an offer to work as a full time editor for the same small publisher that had been consistently commissioning her freelance work since the beginning of her career, she had been absolutely ecstatic. While the freedom to decide her own workload and working hours had been very useful, if not a borderline necessity when she first became a single parent, the monetary uncertainty that came with it, and the few times she had been unable to find any job for a few days at a time did very little to help her perennially frazzled nerves. Having a more stable paycheck and work routine had allowed her to relax significantly, save up a little more and even spoil herself and Izuku a little, as the increase in hero merch in his room could testify. Especially the limited edition All Might hoodie she had bought him for his eight birthday just two weeks prior. He had been wearing it nonstop for days, beaming all the while.

It also had allowed her to stop relying so much on the child support money Hisashi sent them, which had been far more vindicating that even she had expected.

Obviously, the contract also forced her to fulfill some new obligations that she couldn’t manage from her own home, like the occasional meetings with writers and the management, but those never took up more than an afternoon anyway.

She also found another reason to thank her lucky stars for Izuku all over again. Not only he was responsible and obedient enough that, given proper instructions, she didn’t need to concern herself with finding him a babysitter whenever it happened, but he had even surprised her by taking upon himself to do chores around the house while she was away.

She remembered with particular fondness the second time she had to leave him at home alone, and how she found him waiting at the kitchen table with a… somewhat edible  _ attempt _ of a salad he had prepared for her, cleverly circumventing her instructions to not use the stove to prepare her dinner. Thinking back at it still made her tear up with pride, despite the mess of stray leaves and condiments stains on the floor she had to clean up afterwards.

But, as smart and responsible as he was, she couldn’t reasonably expect to leave Izuku alone for the entirety of the five-days long mandatory refresher training held in Osaka that her superior had roped her into.

As she started sipping her coffee, her eyes wandering around the house, she started considering her options. She had no family left to ask for help, and she refused to even consider asking Hisashi’s. The next obvious solution would have been to simply ask Mitsuki to host Izuku for the few days she needed, but her friend had already told her that her family was going to take advantage of the August vacation to immediately go visit her aging parents and Katsuki’s cousins from her side. She knew that Mitsuki would probably accept anyway out of kindness, but she  _ really  _ didn’t want to impose on their family time.

Also, as timid as Izuku was, there was no chance he would be comfortable spending time with a bunch of other unknown kids related to his rambunctious friend. As close as she knew they were, it was clear to her that even Izuku could handle only small doses of Katsuki’s hands-on brand of playing at a time, judging from all the time he spent at home.

She  _ could  _ bring him with her and have him sit at her side during the seminars, maybe tell him to bring his notebooks and let him look up hero fights and the news on her phone like she had often found him doing on his own; he was so quiet and polite she knew it really wouldn’t be an issue, but it would have probably bored him to tears by the third day. Not to mention that spent more than enough time on the internet already…

Her eyes landed on a photo of Izuku and Katsuki from when they were six and she had been asked to look after the small blonde for a day. It had been a beautiful, sunny day and she had decided to take them for a walk in the nearby woods. In the photo Katsuki was proudly showing off a humongous stag beetle he had found with a huge grin, with a slightly more subdued smiling Izuku at his side. 

Suddenly an idea flashed in her head, and she picked up her phone to check the bin of her mail inbox. Sitting there, among various the others advertisements she had dismissed with barely a passing glance, was one that she had received that same morning. But now, the more she scanned the details on screen, the more it seemed a good idea. A  _ really  _ good idea.

There was a good chance it wouldn’t even require any extra travel time, as she found out while reading the website. The organizers had buses set up to depart from Osaka the afternoon before her lessons started. Most importantly, it would both solve her current predicament and, at the same time be a fun experience as well as a much needed change of pace for Izuku. They could even make a small vacation out of it, considering she didn’t need to be back home right after.

Yes, she decided as the words on the screen reflected in her eyes, this was exactly what Izuku needed.

-

“Summer camp?” Her son looked up at her while bent over his breakfast, a white stain under his nose.

“Izuku, sit straight while eating, and also…” she picked up a napkin and reached over him with a teasing smile “milk mustache!”

Izuku pouted and looked away while she cleaned his face, a faint blush on his cute freckled cheeks that made her coo internally. “And yes, summer camp; an entire week of it! You know that thing I told you I have to do out of town? I thought about it, and decided that while I’m busy there, you should have some fun! It’s going to be on the mountains of Shikoku island; you know, the one we’ve seen the other day on TV? The one with the Buddhist pilgrimage in the middle of those beautiful woods? They have a lot of outdoor activities and games for you to play with other kids; teach you a lot about plants and animals; and, if the weather is good enough, they’ll even teach you how to go rafting!” 

Taking a bite off her biscuit, she looked at her son while he absentmindedly stirred his milk and cereals, mulling over her words, as he slowly slumped over his bowl once again. Before she could admonish him, he spoke up without looking at her. 

“Can’t I- uh, can’t I ask aunt Mitsuki to go to their house? So I can stay with Kacchan while you are at... that sen- sema- sim- ?” 

“It’s ‘seminar’, and Mitsuki will be away for the entirety of the summer vacation visiting family out of town…” she trailed off, a thought striking her, “didn’t Katsuki tell you? They’ve been preparing this trip for a while…”

Izuku’s face fell, and the stirring crawled to a stop.”He- uh, he probably just forgot. And we didn’t… really have much occasion to play together. Since Tsubasa moved away. And... he has been… distracted? He… he must have wanted to tell me… right?”

Inko stopped sipping her coffee as Izuku seemed to try to fold in on himself. It took her a moment to remember who ‘Tsubasa’ was (a kid with huge bat-like wings she had often seen playing with Katsuki and Izuku), but the last time she had seen the boy had been  _ months  _ ago. A mild alarm bell rang in her head at the crestfallen expression on Izuku’s face and the implication that Katsuki had been distant from him for a while. He often returned home with scuff marks on his clothes and the acrid smell of smoke accompanying them, but it was always explained away by a smiling Izuku as the result of a rowdy game of “Hero and Villains” led by the explosive kid.

While she didn’t appreciate how “rowdy” these games got, her complaints to Mitsuki had never seemed to get results, and besides, Izuku didn’t seem to mind. He probably even felt validated by the fact that Katsuki didn’t treat him like he was made of frail glass or dismissed him outright like most other people did, so after a while she had decided that it was not something truly worth listening to her ever-present anxiety about.

But the fact that Katsuki had ‘forgotten’ for such a long time to tell him about their summer project bothered her. A lot. 

She remembered when she was a child herself, and how most of her playmates simply included her in their games out of habit, but never cared for her beyond that for being the “annoying crybaby” of the group. She truly, desperately hoped that the same thing wasn’t happening with Izuku. As far as she could tell Katsuki was his best, if not only, friend; everyone else put off by his lack of quirk despite being such an amazing, bright, and caring kid. Also, as the child of her best friend, she saw the blond as a bit of her own.

She put down her mug and got up from her seat; she walked around the table until she was kneeling at Izuku’s side, and hugged him. He immediately leaned into the embrace and squeezed back, tickling her nose with his wild curls, and soon she heard him sniffing and started feeling small tears falling on her chest. She teared up as well, but held strong, rubbing circles in his back and whispering soothing words in his hairs, reassuring him over and over again that Katsuki didn’t mean anything bad by it and would be happy to play again just as soon as he came back.

Inwardly, she once again cursed herself for being unable to give Izuku a power of his own, as she discovered day after day more ways in which his quirklessness hurt him and isolated him from the rest of the world. With an horrified startle, she realized he might take this camp as a way for her to leave him behind as well, albeit only for a few days. 

She wouldn’t take that risk, this had to be rectified immediately.

“Izuku, honey, look at me,” She softly pushed him away, and when he looked up at her she cupped his face in her hands, her thumbs brushing away his tears.

“You know I don’t care that you don’t have a quirk, and I’m sorry it has made everything so hard for you, and I love you and I will always,  _ always  _ be at your side no matter what happens, right?” she asked him, her words tinged with desperation as she tried to convey as much love and affection as she could.

His bright emerald eyes, just a shade lighter than her own, just like her own mother’s had been, stared at her, before he gave a timid nod and sniffed.

“If you- if you really d-don’t want to go to that camp-” she suddenly found hard to speak, as her eyes burned and her throat constricted weirdly around her words, “I ca-can bring you to the seminar w-with me, and we can go vi-visit the city in the evenings but…” 

She took a breath, and the pressure on her windpipe relaxed, “I will probably be really tired by then, and the rest of the day would be really really boring for you. You would have to stay alone in a hotel room watching tv, and I know you love looking up hero fights, but not for  _ hours _ on end all alone… And that doesn’t sound fun, does it?”

Izuku seemed to think for a moment before shaking his head and looking away from her, but he still didn’t seem fully convinced.

Suddenly Inko had a flash of inspiration and gave him a teasing smile, “Orrrr, I could bring you with me at the seminar, but you would have to sit quietly and listen to their lessons for even longer than you already do at school. Does that sound like a fun way to spend the beginning of your summer break, honey?”

Izuku looked back at her, eyes wide in surprise and horror, “Lessons? But- but you are a grown up! I thought you didn’t have to go to school to learn stuff anymore!”

“Oh, Izuku,” Inko chuckled fondly, getting up on her feet and passing her hand through her child’s hair, happy to have derailed his bad mood, even if just a little “That’s what a ‘seminar’ is; it’s a bunch of lessons. Even adults have a lot of stuff to learn, we just usually can decide what to learn and when, like I tried to learn that recipe for a soup last week, remember?”

“It was icky…” Izuku muttered under his breath like he often did, before he realized what he said and looked up in alarm. “S-sorry! I mean, it was just a bit weird and- and-”

“Don’t worry Izuku, you’re right, it  _ was  _ icky,” this time it was Inko’s turn to look aside, a bit embarrassed, “But that just means I have to try again until I get it right. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to make it really well, and you’ll finally like eating veggies.”

Izuku scrunched up his brows at the mere mention of vegetables, as many children did. Inko sighed in fond exasperation, and decided to breach the original subject again.

“So, what do you think about the camp? Do you want to at least try?” she coaxed him, and he assumed his usual pensive look, but didn’t seem as troubled about it as before, “It will be like that time we went to the woods with Katsuki and the two of you caught bugs together, but for an entire week!” He suddenly seemed a bit more enthusiastic about it, and she cheered internally.  _ Now for the last strike! _

“Once we all come back here, you could even ask Katsuki and your other friends to come with you to play there together again, and tell him all the cool stuff they taught you at camp! I bet he would be really happy about it!” 

Izuku looked up at her, his eyes shining, not with tears, but with excitement, and she internally cheered.  _ Victory! _

So she sat back in her chair and resumed her breakfast while Izuku pulled out a notepad and pen and started thinking out loud and writing about what kind of stuff he would need and what would they do and so on, all with a smile on his face she tried her hardest to carve in her memory.

For once, she was happy with herself, the weight by her stomach small and unimportant. For once, it was easy to actually believe that at least something wouldn’t be ruined. 

That everything, once in a while, was going to be fine. 

-

Inko was woken up by the distorted blaring of her alarm.

Immediately her senses were assaulted by the foreign, loud noise of howling wind, and the roaring cars and blaring sirens just under her window. She groggily turned on her side, blindly searching for the nightstand until she finally found her phone and poked at its screen until the tune ceased. As she opened her eyes, fighting against the odd, rough sleepiness still scraping in her skull, she had a moment of confusion as she didn’t remember the wall being so close to her bed, but then remembered that she was not, in fact, in her apartment in a small residential area of Musutafu, but in an hotel room miles away from home, with a loud highway a mere few hundreds meters from her wall, and had been there for four days now.

But that didn’t explain why it was still so dark. Even looking out the window she couldn’t see even a single hint of light in the sky yet. What time was it, even? 

Inko reached for her phone again blearily squinted her eyes at its screen, blindingly bright in the darkness of the hotel room. A few moments later her eyes finally adjusted to the light and-  _ three in the morning? _

_ Why had she set up her alarm for three in the morning? _

Her phone vibrated to life again in her hand and her ringtone blared out mercilessly, making her yelp and startling her in almost dropping it. She took a shuddering breath trying to calm down and glared at the unknown number that had appeared on screen. Now that she was more than awake, Inko recognized that the music that had woken her up not even a minute before had not, in fact, been her alarm ringtone, but the same call ringtone that was playing now. Meaning, someone had actually been trying to call her. 

Twice in a row.

In the middle of the night.

Her thoughts ran immediately to Izuku.

A sudden pit formed in her stomach as her anxiety spiked and started digging through her insides. She clinged to the little rational part of her mind she had left that suggested maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t about Izuku but something-  _ anything  _ else. She fumbled with her phone for a few too long seconds until she finally found the answer button and nearly slammed the phone on the side of her head.

“Who is it?” 

_ Please no, please please please no no no… _

“Miss Midoriya? Sorry for the late hour, my name is Boshi Kyanu, I am a guide of the Shikoku summer camp. I’m afraid I’m calling to inform you-”

Manic energy sparking through every fiber of her body, Inko threw the covers off herself and scrambled off the bed, her head already going a mile a minute thinking how long she would need to put her stuff together, check out and drive to the camp location. 

“What happened?  _ Oh, god _ \- Is Izuku okay? I'm on my way, where are y-”

“Ma’am,  _ please  _ relax, he’s fine. Your son is fine, he’s safe and sound. In fact, he's asleep right in front of me right now.” The man’s voice was tense and clipped even through the phone, like he was trying way too too hard to not snap at her and be firm and reassuring. 

Some of the panic-imbued tension left her, and Inko heavily fell back on her bed. 

“Oh, thank goodness… but… why are you calling at this hour? Did something happen?” 

From the other side came a deep, weary sigh. “I'm afraid so, miss Midoriya. I'm sorry to have to inform you that because of a violent thunderstorm that hit the mountains a few hours ago, our camp location was flooded, several structures damaged, and we had no choice but to evacuate. The camp management has decided to indefinitely suspend all further activities with immediate effect. We apologize for the inconvenience.” 

That entire part was said uninterrupted in a single breath, like it had been rehearsed, Inko distractedly noticed, but more importantly... 

“Flooded? How is that possible? The weather forecast didn't anticipate anything of the sort… wait, if the camp was evacuated, where are you and my son?"

"We are currently located at Akywa City General Hospital. Now, I need to ask you-"

"What do you mean  _ hospital _ ?" Inko exploded, the dreaded h-word sending a new wave of hysterics through her as she jumped to her feet again, ready to barge out of the hotel, "You said Izuku was  _ fine _ !"

" _ And he is _ !" the man on the other side raised his voice as well, the sheer impotent anger in his tone giving her pause. In the background, of the call she could hear another, young voice making shushing noises. 

Before she could talk back, the man continued, "Your son is, thankfully, merely very tired and a bit shaken up. He is  _ not  _ among the children that suffered… relevant injuries," meaning that others did, poor kids… 

"But he told us he had a bit of a tumble down a slope because of the mud, so we decided it would be prudent to have him at least checked out. The nurses already gave him a clean bill, his worst injury was a scraped elbow. One of the older kids that had gotten separated from the group as well found and helped him. From what she told us, they took refuge in an empty shack to keep dry and waited there until the storm passed. Then she immediately led your son back to the cabins and helped him change into dry clothes before being carried to the hospital, so he probably won't even catch a cold."

Inko dropped her head in her hand and breathed deeply as small tears burned in the corner of her eyes. Thank goodness Izuku was not actually hurt, and someone else had been looking out for him. She also had the sudden urge to hug whoever this wonderful, benevolent child was. 

Except... the man had said yet another thing that didn't sit well with her at all.

"What do you mean  _ separated _ ? You actually  _ lost  _ my son? How do you even lose a-  _ two _ children? How long were they alone in that dreadful situation?" 

"Look… the storm took us by complete surprise, ma'am. Not even a single damn cloud in the sky; quite the opposite, it was so clear we made an astrology lesson out of it, we even had the lights turned off for it. Then, in a few seconds, the sky was covered in… weird iridescent clouds or something and we found ourselves under heavy rainfall. Weirdest change of weather I've ever seen in all my life. Some suggested it was some sort of odd villain attack, but we don't know yet.

"We tried to round up as many people as possible and retreat to the dormitories, but between the heavy rain, the darkness and the panicked rush out of the rain, quite a few people stumbled the wrong way. The storm abated after just fifteen minutes or so, and shortly after that your son was back with us."

The man slowly exhaled, clearly exhausted. Someone close to him said something Inko couldn’t make out through the phone, to which he gave the irritated answer of “ _ In a minute, miss Awata! And keep that- that thing still, please! _ ”

Inko took another deep breath and tried to center herself. She  _ was  _ still very much furious with him and the rest of the camp staff, but keep discussing with the man would have only wasted precious time… Besides, she couldn't ignore just how lost and defeated he sounded. If what he said was true, the circumstances had been so outside of their control that it would have been just petty to keep berating him.

Reuniting with her son was her first priority, seminar be damned, and she would have time later to debate the responsibilities of the camp. She moved her phone between her ear and her shoulder, turned on the lights and started walking around the room, picking up her personal effects and carelessly tossing them in her travel bag, while starting to plan ahead the best road to take and how much time it would take.

"If there is nothing else you need to tell me, I’ll be on my way. I  _ want  _ to talk to Izuku first, and hear that he is okay for myself. Do you mind waking him up for a minute?” she asked with clipped politeness, just an inch away from an order.

“Well, there is something else… but I think your son and miss Awata here-  _ yes, yes, I’ll pass her now, please keep it short-  _ will be a lot more qualified to talk to you about it. I’ll give her the phone now, and despite the horrible circumstances, I feel like congratulations are in order. Have a good trip, miss Midoriya.”

“Congrat- what are- _Wait!_ I asked you to pass me my so-” Inko had barely time to ask, wondering what the man could possibly mean, before another, much _much_ younger voice, probably a girl, started talking through the phone.

“Hello? Miss Midoriya? You still there?”

Inko waited a moment, before letting out a low, rough breath that sounded almost like a growl. She would  _ not  _ snap to a child, but it was getting really hard keeping calm. 

“...yes. And who are you, sweetie?”

“ _ Bubbles, is that the miss Mama Inko that Izu told me abou-” _ yet another voice interrupted, strangely high pitched.

“Not now Gummy- er, hello! My name is Kaoruko Awata; I’m a friend of Izuku’s!”

Inko was momentarily stunned. She had hoped against hope, and Izuku’s own combination of shyness and quirklessness, that Izuku would manage to make… some acquaintances at the camp, but to hear someone simply introduce themselves as his friend out loud to her like that… had… had that ever even actually happened before?

The girl on the other side seemed to take Inko’s pause as some kind of judgemental silence and started sputtering.

“Err… I-I am one of- I am the older kid that was with Izuku during the storm. The one Mister Kyanu here told you about.”

“Oh… oh!” Inko’s heart jumped a beat, and felt a smile pulling at her lips, “Oh, sweetie, thank you so much! You have no idea how much what you did means to me, I- I can’t even think what would have happened without you there…”

“ _ Hey, I was there too! _ ” the same high pitched voice from before interjected from off screen. Was someone else there? 

“Yes, Gummy, you were. And Miss Ink-- I mean-- Miss Midoriya, sorry! I was saying-- you don’t need to thank me. Izuku- Izuku was very brave, he helped out a lot too, I-I don’t think I would have ever been able to, as his age, and without him there w-we wouldn’t hav-- wait--”

Inko was left to her own thoughts once again as the young lady--,Kaoruko, she absolutely had to remember her name for having helped Izuku, and, she now realized, staying with him all the way to the hospital-- seemed to start talking with the guide, their short conversation muffled by something covering the microphone, before sound came back.

“I’m back, sorry Miss Midoriya, but mister Kyanu here really needs his phone back. He’s being an ass about it-”

“Miss Awata!” the man snapped in the background, appalled, while the squeaky voice from before gasped, “ _ Bubbles! That’s a bad word! _ ” 

“-sorry!- but he still  _ does  _ need to still call a bunch of other parents to inform them of this mess, so I was thinking… Maybe it’s better if I call this number with my own phone? This way we won’t have mister guide here breathing down our neck. Oh, and we can make it a video call! I… I think Izuku would really like to actually  _ see  _ you...”

And Inko thought she couldn’t feel even more grateful for this girl.

A few seconds later her phone rang again, and she almost toppled herself over answering. Immediately she was greeted by the face of a young teen, twelve or thirteen at most, if she had to guess, with pale blue skin, darker blue hair and bright yellow eyes. The whites of her eyes were also obviously red and irritated, and the two dark bags underneath bordered on purple, clear signs of what must have been a really long night.

But immediately all her focus was promptly stolen away and she found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the mess of green, curly hairs poking through the bottom of the screen and tickling the teen’s chin.

“Oh, wow, you really look a  _ lot  _ like him! Or... I guess he looks like you? Gah, sorry, that’s not important right now.” She shook her head, before the image on the phone panned down and a weight she had not even noticed being there seemed to crumble off Inko’s heart.

Finally, he was  _ there _ .

Sitting on the teen’s lap, clearly exhausted and serenely asleep, with his head laying on her chest, he looked… about as well as she could have expected. She could still see some mud stains caked in his hairs and near his ears, and there were clear tears tracks under his eyes, under which were bags that rivaled the ones on the teen’s face. Under his chin was the collar of his bright rainjacket, that he was using as an impromptu blanket, and the teen’s arm was looped protectively over his chest. It was clear he was scuffed and shaken, but overall he looked as healthy as he ever had. He was  _ okay.  _

_ Everything is fine. _

“IZUKU!” she thrilled with sheer relief, loud enough that someone off screen grumbled but, more importantly, stirred him from his sleep.

He grumbled a bit and scrunched his nose the way he always did, and Inko felt herself choke up a little, but didn’t give any other sign of waking up, so Kaoruko started lightly shaking his shoulder.

“Hey, Izuku, there is someone here that wants to talk with you,” She said with an eager smile on her face.

Izuku grumbled a bit more and muttered some name she didn’t hear through the phone, before he cracked his eyelids open. As soon as he saw her, his eyes slammed wide open, staring, like he’s afraid she would disappear if he blinked. His mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds, until he finally uttered a single, quiet word.

“M-mom?”

She forced herself to appear more composed than she really feet, and smiled, “H-hi sweetie. I’m coming, okay? I’ll be there soon.”

A new sound seemed to tear itself from his throat, mournful and filled with more sheer despair she ever thought his little body could contain, and quickly devolved in wet sobs. A fresh wave of tears starts running down his cheeks, until he finally completely broke down crying, repeating over and over how much he had missed her, how sorry he was, how much he loved her, and so on until it all deteriorated into wailing gibberish that tore at her heart. Behind him she saw the teen pulling him closer to her and whispering in his ear, as a few tears ran down her own face as well. 

Through the screen Inko saw Izuku reach towards the phone with his tiny hands, like he wanted to hug her like they usually did when either of them got emotional but immediately stopped as he seemed to realize the insurmountable,  _ painful  _ distance between them. He then grabbed the arm that the teen had around his shoulder, the closest source of comfort he had, almost hanging from it for dear life. 

Inko wasn’t faring much better, her own fingers were twitching almost painfully with the physical need to embrace him and run her fingers through his hairs like she always did, and her smile faltered as she realized how incredibly afraid Izuku must have been to reduce him to such a state.

And that was when the screen turned green.

And then the green...  _ wiggled _ ?

Inko stared at her screen in confusion for an instant, before another voice, the same squeaky, high pitched voice that had interrupted their conversation before, blared out of her phone, clearly very close to the microphone and far too loud.

“Izu, nooo! Why are you crying? Stop! It’s all okay!” 

From behind… whatever the green was she heard Izuku letting out a startled “ _ eep!”  _ before he started making a weird noise halfway between his previous sobs and giggling, as miss Kaoruko screeched and her camera started shaking around. “Ack, Gummy, get off! Careful with your hor- Ouch! My arm! You’re stabbing my arm!”

A few moments of scuffle later, the camera stopped shaking and was raised above the teen and Izuku, pointing down on them and-

“Hi, Miss Mama Inko! I’m Gummy! Oh, wow, I’m so  _ so happy _ to finally see you! Oh WOW, Bubbles was right, you  _ do  _ look a lot like Izu! You even have the same eyes! That’s so cool!”

-and the small, beady eyed, fang-toothed, single horned green… sludge... blob thing sitting on Izuku’s lap that had just greeted her.

Inko stared. And stared. And then stared some more. The thing tilted its head, and she noticed it also had two other lumps coming from the sides of its head, just below his horn, so… ears? Except… now it was waving them at her. Limbs? A bit of both?

“Izu, why is your mama Inko so quiet all of the sudden?” the blob turned its head at Izuku, who was wearing an increasingly sheepish smile, while behind him the young lady was looking down at it with a disgruntled face, her arm no longer around Izuku’s shoulders. And were those bubbles floating around them?

Inko shook herself out of her thoughts, and reprimanded herself. While she had never personally seen anything of the sort before, from the tone of voice it was easy to guess that blob was probably just a child, possibly even younger than Izuku, with some  _ really  _ extreme case of a mutation quirk. Except… it was  _ so  _ small it would have barely reached up to Izuku’s knees if he had been standing, and Izuku’s own eight-years old had been the minimum age required to participate in the camp...

“Sorry, sweetie, you just surprised me… Gummy was it? That’s a really cute name. Are you a friend of Izuku too?” she asked with a smile.

Both Izuku and Kaoruko seemed to want to say something, but before they could, the blob child thrilled up. “Of course I am! Even better than friends, I am his partner!” he declared, shifting its body in a way Inko could only translate in an attempt to puff out its chest.

Behind them Kaoruko started looking faintly alarmed, her eyes switching between Inko and the child, while Izuku kept looking down at it.

“His… partner?” Inko asked slowly, before realization hit her. “Oh! You must have been on his same team during the camp! Did you two do all your activities together? I hope you had a lot of fun!” 

The child looked confused for a moment, but nodded anyway, then answered with the same energy. “Yeah, Izu is the best! He’s super smart and kind and generous with food! I’m so happy he was the one I was waiting for!” 

Inko scrunched her brows. “...waiting for?”

“ _ Izuku! _ ” The teen holding both childs in her lap screeched, and three set of eyes turned to her. She blushed heavily, lowered her phone to her side, and cleared her voice. “Izuku, isn’t there something you need to tell your mom?”

Izuku blinked at her owlishly. “That I love her? But I already did.” And, oh, Inko felt another spark of warmth in her heart, but at the same time she was growing cautiously curious about what the teen was talking about

“Oh, damn- er- C’mon, Izuku! You know, the  _ explanation _ ?” the teen said, clearly growing increasingly agitated as he eyes switched back and forth from Izuku to her, urgency clear in her words, while foam and bubbles started to appear on her face. Her quirk, maybe? “The very important one I and- and the others told you to give her about Gummy? About what he is? And why he should go back home with you?” 

At that Inko blinked, because  _ what?  _

_ Maybe his parents live in our same prefecture, and Izuku offered to drive him home with us? Wait… ‘what’ he is? What could she possibly- _

“Oh… Oh, right! That!” Izuku exclaimed loudly, picking up the blob child and looking down at it. For a moment a look of hesitation flashed across his face, before the child gave him a nod, and Izuku’s expression changed in one of determination. Then he raised Gummy to face her, took a deep breath, and…

“Mom! Gummy is my quirk!”

Inko felt like her brain just died.

She kept staring at the smiling green blob on her screen, an absolutely mess of feelings, memories and thoughts churning and roiling in her head with no rhyme or reason, crashing against her skull like waves until she almost felt physical pressure against her temple, almost as if her head was about to pop open.

The doctor appointment. Coming back home just to find all of Hisashi’s stuff missing, a letter on the table. Izuku breaking down crying watching his favorite All Might video. She digging out her Modern Literature degree that she had never really used because of the agreement she had made with her husband. Her nights spent awake proofreading and editing whenever she found a job. The first true fight she ever had with her husband a week after the diagnosys. Izuku hiding his notebooks from her whenever she so much as glimpsed them, a guilty look on his face as if scared that they would hurt her like their pages were knives. The dwindling number of children that showed up at Izuku’s birthdays. The hours spent scouring medical journals for any hint of a chance of the appearance of a quirk despite the toe bone. The bone deep resignation when she herself had finally accepted it. The deep, gnawing horror she felt the first time she found Izuku watching the television as another quirkless suicide was briefly announced in the news. And so on, and so forth. Every single moment of hardship they had experienced in the last four years replayed itself in front of her eyes.

Every single ounce of pain they went through because she hadn’t been able to give Izuku even the smallest quirk.

_ Gummy is my quirk.  _

_ Izuku has a quirk. _

Except, did he really? She knew that Izuku would never,  _ ever  _ lie about something like this, but… She had the papers to prove that such a thing was impossible, and she knew for a fact that no one in her family ever had such a peculiar quirk. There it was, the one-in-a-million chance for a better future, the miracle that she had been silently begging for for years, and yet...

“I-Izuku- sweetie-” she finally managed to say out loud, her voice cracking with thousands of questions and doubts she didn’t dare to voice, else the dream were to be shattered. So all she could muster was a feeble, “H-how?”

Izuku opened his mouth, but then closed it, scrunched his brows and first looked down at the blob, then turned to the teen behind him with a lost expression on his face.

Young Kaoruko bit her lip nervously, looked away and then said, “Uh, well… I… don’t really know what to say. It all happened pretty fast… when we stumbled on each other in the middle of the storm, there was this… weird flash of lightning that blinded me, Izuku screamed, I turned to check if he was all right and next thing I knew this little guy was just… there, looking up at him, and they... both... had some kind of green... gleam around them?” she offered awkwardly. 

“I know it sounds weird,” She continued, “But there was just this… connection I could  _ feel  _ between them. Izuku told me that he had been certified quirkless but that was  _ years  _ ago, maybe something changed in the meanwhile, and besides,” she gave Inko a lopsided, almost forced smile, “What else it could  _ possibly  _ be?”

Inko looked at the blob secured between Izuku’s own arms, both it and her son looking back at her expectantly. 

A sniffle was all the warning they had before she completely broke down crying like she never had before, but for the first time, she laughed while doing so, for once her tears leaving her feeling lighter instead of bogged down.

_ Everything was finally going to be fine. _


	2. Whiplash

_Izuku was shambling desperately through the woods, wet, cold, alone, and_ utterly terrified _. The deluge of cold rain in the pitch black darkness of the night, coupled with the tears gathering in his own eyes, made it almost impossible to see even the trees around him, forcing him to walk slowly and feel for their trunks with his hands to avoid slamming against one. The consistent hammering of the raindrops on the leaves and the howling wind shaking the branches made it hard to even hear his own desperate pleas for someone to find and help him; his sobbing only made worse by the explosives, bone-rattling thunderclaps that made his heart want to leap out of his chest every few seconds._

_He had completely lost track of his surroundings the moment the heaviest rainstorm he had ever seen in his entire life had started; the sudden downpour falling by shimmering clouds that appeared with no warning whatsoever took the crowd of campers gathered in the clearing by complete surprise. Then, the momentary stunned silence had been completely shattered by the first thunderclap, and with it what little electric illumination they had fizzled out. Immediately, the small horde of people had started panicking and running away; someone accidentally pushed him on the ground and left him behind, rattled and lost and_ alone _._

_He slowly walked around yet another barely visible tree, just to trip on an exposed root. He barely managed to catch himself on the nearby trunk, and when he raised his head what he saw finally ignited a flicker of hope ignited in his chest. Previously hidden by the thick trunk, he could see a small, bright light piercing through the darkness. Immediately, he started walking towards it, with the hope that it was leading him to a cabin or one of the adults._

_Then, as he got closer, the light itself suddenly shined even brighter, and an instant later broke apart, its pieces, each a different color, scattering. One of the fragments, shining a soft green, shot towards him like a bullet, so fast that Izuku barely had the time to try to stop, only to slip on the mud and wet leaves because of his momentum, landing on his back. Under his petrified gaze, Izuku saw the strange light instantly change direction as well, now pointing downwards at him like it was magnetised._

_His body instinctively braced for the hit, his eyes squeezing shut and his arms crossing in front of his face, like he had done many times before. However, the expected, painful hit never came. Instead, all he felt was a small weight settling in his open palm and a strange warmth creeping over him._

_When he opened his eyes, he found that he could finally see the ground around him, thanks to the same soft, green light, now seemingly glowing out of his palm and suffusing throughout the entirety of his body. Slowly, he turned his hand and saw the source of the light. There, hovering a fraction of an inch from the skin of his palm, was a bulky, little electronic device, a small screen, and a few large buttons barely visible through the blinding viridescent glow it emanated. As he stared at it, the only thing he could compare it to was some kind of walkie-talkie, like the ones he had seen some of the camp guides use, just smaller and with no sign of an antenna._

_A few loud exclamations of surprise tore his attention away from the odd device, and Izuku raised his head to look around. Scattered around him, in different states of surprise and shock, were other four people, each with a bright light in their hands similar to his own that made their entire body glow in the dark, their combined light illuminating the thick canopy of the tree above them, reprieving them somewhat from the rain. As they all looked down at their hands, he recognized three of them as older camp goers he had glimpsed as part of groups other than his own, while the fourth, and the only one other than Izuku to have fallen on the ground, was wearing the bright, sleeveless jacket of the junior camp counselors and a heavy looking backpack secured over his shoulders._

_“Oh, great, a brat… Er, HEY KID, are you alright?” Someone yelled over the rain and wind behind him. Izuku turned to the source of the voice, finding a disheveled, blue-skinned girl, surrounded in rose-tinted light, looming over him. Izuku opened his mouth to answer that he was okay, but before he could, the stranger reached him and grabbed him by his armpit to pull him up; his entire body froze and the words in his throat shriveled to a soft whimper as his body tingled with the phantom impression of Miura and Tsubasa holding him still for Kacchan when he was caught at the end of another game of Heroes and Villain. Quickly, he averted his eyes and pulled away from her, scurrying upright and automatically mumbling an apology that she couldn’t have possibly heard over the sound of the rain._

_When Izuku dared looking back at her, she found her staring at him with a frown on her face, surprise and concern evident in her golden eyes, and her arm still hanging in mid-air where he had rudely shrugged it off. By sheer reflex, he backed away even further, yet another apology already shaping itself on his tongue, but before he could voice it, someone else started yelling behind him._

_“What the FUCK is going on? And what is this? I swear, if it turns out this whole shitstorm was some bright idea your moronic camp bosses came up with for a surprise ‘night activity,’ I’m gonna flip!_ And how the hell do I get this thing off? _”_

_Even though the voice wasn’t anything like his friend’s, and he knew for a fact the blond was almost on the other side of the country, the expletives and loud volume immediately reminded him of Kacchan during a bad day, and his entire body tensed instinctively._

_He relaxed, if only marginally, when he turned and confirmed that the source of the loud voice was indeed the other girl present, this one with long, messy blonde hair accentuated by the golden light surrounding her. An ugly, furious, almost_ familiar _snarl was etched on her face, directed at the device stuck on one hand, while the fingers of her free limb were awkwardly curled around it and uselessly trying to tear it away with ferocious effort. Her nails, Izuku noticed, were slightly longer than normal, ending in a narrow, curved point, and a uniform dark brown in color._

_In front of her, with his hands raised placatingly, but clearly wary of getting closer to the girl still spewing curses and accusations to his face, was the boy with the camp counselor jacket, fitting awkwardly on his tall, lanky frame and surrounded by odd grey light._

_“Please, be reasonable_ **_!_ ** _You can’t be seriously blaming us for this situation! H-how can you even think we had anything to do with this? Also, please calm down and stop touching that- that thing! We don’t even know what it is, it’s not safe trying to force it off like that- and-”_

_“Forget about it! Whatever is going on, it’s not safe here! We need to get out of the woods and return to the cabins as soon as possible!” Yelled the last teen as he put his hand on the girl’s shoulder. He was surrounded by a blue shimmer that reflected oddly on the thick, irregular patches of scales covering his exposed arms and neck, up to his chin, and especially on the lenses of the googles wrapped around his forehead._

_“Don’t you tell me what to do, lizard boy!” The girl snapped back, roughly shoving him off and looking ready to switch her aggression from the device to him. The young camp counselor took a nervous step back, while the goggle boy just glared at her, not moving an inch. Izuku was reminded more and more of an angry Kacchan, and had to stop himself from backing away on quivering legs as well, especially when he could basically_ feel _the teen next to him staring at him. He had a full body shudder when the girl started yelling again, her volume getting higher with every word, “I have had enough of fancy technological dog collars stuck on me already, you asshole! I’m not going anywhere until I get this damn piece of shit off m-!”_

_“Stop screaming!” The girl at Izuku’s side yelled suddenly, causing him to flinch. It did however get the attention of the other three all at once, who blanched as they saw Izuku, seemingly only now noticing he was there._

_“Look, I get where you’re coming from,” She continued, pointedly staring at the other girl, under Izuku’s stunned gaze, “I don’t really know what’s happening either, I’m scared, confused, freezing and angry and I_ hate it _. BUT all that can wait until_ after _we find some better cover from the rain than this tree! It’s like he said, we’re just not safe right now, the longer we stay out here the more we’re all just risking to get sick or getting hit by falling branches or- or coming across wild animals or something like that! So_ please _, calm down!” Then she took a breath, gave Izuku a quick glance, and added awkwardly, “Also, uh, maybe stop cursing? You know. Child and all.”_

_The other girl stood there, momentarily stunned, and Izuku readied himself to jump between them to protect the blue girl from the explosion of anger he_ knew _was coming, like he did whenever someone talked back to Kacchan like that. Usually some new kids that didn’t know better, and never tried again after watching him getting the brunt of Kacchan’s aggression and running away._

_But even after what felt a small eternity, the explosion never came._

_The two boys looked at the loud girl, while she switched from staring at the blue lady to looking down at Izuku, who managed to_ mostly _contain the full body shudder he had when her eyes focused on him. Immediately, her face crumbled with a look of realization. She muttered something Izuku couldn’t hear with her fingers on the nose of her bridge, her expression relaxing slightly, and started scratching the back of her head while looking sideways._

_“Okay, fine, you win,” she said, loud enough that he could hear it through the cacophony of the storm and the low, constant rumbling that had started in the background, but not so much that could be compared to the previous screaming. Izuku was left gaping at her sudden change of demeanor, while the other three teens gave out an audible sigh of relie--_

_Wait,_ rumbling _?_

_“Huh… do you hear that too?” Izuku said, and the others all turned to him at once, startled confusion written all over their faces, causing him to flinch slightly under their collective gaze. “The… The rumbling I mean. I… think it’s... is it… getting... louder?” He finished with a feeling of growing dread, like a thousand ice cold needles crawling up his back._

_“What are you talking abou- oh! You- you’re right! I hear it too!” Google boy said, looking around warily as the rumbling slowly became louder. “Dammit! Are we seriously getting an earthquake too? What- what do we do? Is it even safe to be in a forest during an earthquake? I can’t remember anything about that from the drills…”_

_“The- the forest is pretty old, and the tree roots go pretty deep,” interjected the lanky counselor, “The camp was built on this slope exactly because of it, it’s proof this is not a zone prone to landslides, so t-the worst case scenario shouldn’t come to pass, but we are more likely to getting hit by falling branches dislodged by the tremors- in these situations the suggested course of action is to find a clearing as soon as possible-” he stopped, furrowing his brows as another thunder shook the air “But... If w-we do that we’ll be fully exposed to the rain and be basically certain to get pneumonia or something.” He groaned in defeat, his entire body slouching, before he muttered, “Well, I guess we can at least choose what way we want to get hospitalized?”_

_“Hold on…” Interrupted the blue girl, her expression one more of confusion and befuddlement than actual fear, “This… this doesn’t sound like an earthquake… I recognize it, it- it sounds more like… what the-”_

_And that’s when the tidal wave appeared._

_It burst over the slope Izuku had not noticed being just a few feet away from their position in the darkness, the impossibly bright water shining with rainbow-like glimmers lighting up the entire area around them like it was in full daylight. While they all could only stare at the sheer impossibility happening before them, the wall of liquid light looming over them climbed up further and further, gleefully ignoring every law of gravity Izuku took for granted. Then, for a second that seemed to stretch on forever, it stilled, and with it both the rain and the wind seemed to phase out of existence._

_As Izuku stared incomprehensibly at it, he noticed the wall of water slowly starting to tip over on them. His brain went into overdrive, the rush of panic unlike anything else he had ever experienced, screaming at him to run away, to move, to do_ anything _, but he found his body to be frozen in place despite almost vibrating in fear. He was only remotely aware of someone (goggles-lizard-boy, his brain helpfully supplied) screaming something about grabbing the tree, and the blue girl just as paralyzed as him at his side._

_Then, an instant before the wall of water finally crashed down, without even really thinking, his legs moved on their own, diving in front of the girl, as if he could do something- anything- to protect her. As the wave slammed into him, he was pushed against the girl, who immediately latched on him like a lifeline. Submerged and churned around by the weirdly tingly water, he looked up, and met the terrified gaze of the blue girl. The forest seemed to disappear as the wave ran through it, and they started falling upward towards a crack in the sky; Izuku found himself glad that the water had the effect to hide his terrified tears, and did the only thing he could think of to reassure her._

_As the light enveloped them, he thought back to both All Might and his own mother, and how their smiles always managed to make him feel better and gave him hope._

_So, he smiled too._

* * *

Izuku was warm and dry, sitting on the very comfortable couch of the Awata’s living room. Kaoruko was on his right side, his head leaning on her arm and the soft, fuzzy pajamas she was wearing, decorated with tiny smiling fishes, while Gummy slept soundly in a bundle of blankets sewn with a wave pattern on his left, his small fangs causing a soft whistle with every breath he took. In front of them, a television was playing the afternoon news, its light dancing through a beautifully detailed ship-in-a-bottle on the low table in front of the couch they were sitting on.

He felt absolutely miserable.

“ _Despite the more than 24 hours of uninterrupted research by the combined effort of the mountain rescue corps, the local police forces, and several specialized rescue heroes, the three children missing from the Shikoku Summer Camp have yet to be found after the unprecedented storm that has struck the island 36 hours ago. Many of the camp structures were damaged by debris carried by the water, and about 50 other children had to be transported to the nearest hospital, 10 of which suffered grave injuries and 2 still remain in critical condition. The authorities have ensured that everything is being done to ensure the missing campers will be able to return to their families as soon as possible, and have recently enlisted the help of the Wild Wild Pussycats, a recently formed hero team that has already climbed their way through the rankings for their excellent work in mountain-rescue operations, who will join the research efforts starting this afternoon._

_“Meanwhile, road traffic has been re-established in most of the provinces hit by the storm thanks to the removal of debris transported by rock and mudslides. Circulation has been reinstated on the following roads…”_

Izuku let out a low whine, tears already gathering at the corners of his eyes; he pushed his face into Kaoruko’s side as he started sobbing, and she shifted to pull him closer, rubbing circles on his back, but saying nothing. Instead, he felt her reach for her own Digivice, and he raised his head to watch, blinking the tears away. After ensuring her mother was still in the kitchen and out of sight, she opened up the radar function, and a large holographic screen appeared over the grey-purplish device in her hand. 

Immediately, it displayed a green signal right next to her, representing Izuku’s own device hanging from his neck and hidden under his shirt, but no other signal appeared, not even an arrow representing an off-screen one.

Staring at the empty hologram, Izuku felt his stomach plummet a little more once again, as it had been doing every time they had checked the radar in the two days passed since returning from the Digital World. He raised his eyes and saw Kaoruko biting her lip, worry etched deeply on her face, and reached around her in a hug. Without a word, she reciprocated, her larger frame curling protectively above him. Her breathing was shuddering, and he could _feel_ her lungs trembling through the hug. But she didn’t cry.

Izuku knew that it was because he was there. She was putting up a strong front just for him, as she always did-- as they _all_ always did-- no matter how desperately she needed to just let it go. Maybe sensing his mood, Gummy mumbled in his sleep and found himself a better position in his nest of blankets, twisting itself in that weird boneless way that only a living mass of digital jello could, and Izuku felt another wave of shame and guilt drown him. 

It wasn’t fair that, out of everyone, _he_ had gotten away. _He_ had been the one to hesitate, to mess up at the most important moment and cause their entire plan to unravel, and the other had to come back to help him fix _his_ mistake, putting themselves in unneeded danger. Then, they had to cover him and Kaoruko as they rushed forward, and despite their assurance that they would follow them right after, they seemingly hadn’t returned yet; he and Kaoruko had no idea of what had happened to them, nor did they have any way to find out or help. And it wasn’t fair that Kaoruko was the one to console him now, when he still had his partner with him while hers had been left behind.

They stayed like that for just a minute, before Izuku heard footsteps approaching from the kitchen, and Kaoruko quickly disentangled herself from him and put the device back in her pocket, while he rubbed the tears out of his eyes. Kaoruko turned around and greeted her mother as the woman opened the door of the living room, quickly followed by the thick cloud of flowery fragrance that she brought with her wherever she went.

“Kaoruko, Izuku, I baked you some snacks!” She trilled energetically as she walked around the couch, Izuku’s eyes not leaving her for even an instant, and slowly put a tray on the low table in front of them, two mugs of steaming tea and an inviting plate with about half a dozen biscuits that smelled fresh out of the oven, “I hope you like coconut cookies, Izuku; they have always been one of my little Kao’s favourites,”. She turned to face them, and Izuku found that for once he didn’t really care if she noticed their mood and her expression fell slightly. She quickly tried to build a cheery front again and smiled kindly.

“Oh, Izuku, I received a message from your mother,” she continued. “The rockslide was finally removed, and she was able to start traveling again, she said she would be here by tonight at the latest.”

As he heard that, he felt like a small weight was lifted from his chest, and he breathed a little easier. He smiled shyly up at the woman, before he gave her a little bow. “Thank you for telling me, Miss Awata. And thank you again for having me these last couple days.”

“Oh, dear, how polite,” she giggled, “You really need to stop thanking me, Izuku; it was just the right thing to do,” she answered, before clapping together her hands, “Now dig in! If you don’t like them or there is a problem, just tell me, okay? I’ll make you something else.” 

“Don’t worry, Miss Awata, they are perfect.” Izuku replied, eyeing the treats on the table. He usually didn’t like biscuits or cookies that much-- too many times he had found his mom scarfing them down with a sad look in her eyes when she didn’t think he was looking-- but he had to admit that these looked incredible. Also, he had learned to _never_ refuse free food from a safe source. So he picked one up and started nibbling on it, his eyes widening at their rich taste, still unused to how _strong_ everything tasted in their world after having dealing for so long with the blandness every food seemed to have in the Digital World. He shuddered trying to suppress the instinct to just start scarfing them down as quickly as he could; all three of them-- him, Kaoruko and Gummy-- had already received a thorough scolding the day before when they had teared apart their dinner under the horrified eyes of the Awata parents. So he started taking small, if a bit quick, bites , his other arm already reaching for another one. As he did, though, he noticed that Kaoruko still hadn’t made any move for them, and he slowly pulled back, a pit of worry already forming in his stomach. He turned slightly in her direction, mildly alarmed, one hand sliding in front of the still sleeping Gummy, and found her staring at the tray in front of her with wide eyes. Was there something wrong with them? Did she notice something off? _Were they in danger?_

Then, she lifted one trembling hands, and reached for the cookies herself, grasping one almost reverently, and when she finally bit down on it, her entire face went slack, and quickly finished it as small tears pooled in the corners of her eyes. At her side, Izuku relaxed and let out a small breath he had been holding. 

Then in a fast, fluid motion that startled him all over again, she stood up from the couch and tackled her mother in a tight hug for the umpteenth time since her and her husband had appeared at the hospital to pick them up. And for the umpteenth time, the poor woman stood shocked for a few seconds before hesitantly wrapping her arms tight around her daughter, a new wave of thick rose scent coming off from her and making Izuku’s nose itch.

How Kaoruko still had such a good sense of smell after living with her mother for her entire life, quirk-enhancement or not, Izuku would never know.

“They are even better than I remembered. Thank you, mom.” Kaoruko muttered after a few instants of silence, then pulled back with a beaming smile and eyes shiny with tears, her hands still on her mother’s shoulders, while the woman wearing a confused but happy expression, muttered something about having made them just a day before the start of the summer camp, a mere week ago.

Izuku was struck once again by a sudden wave of sheer longing for his own mom, and for an instant he imagined that in place of the cookies on the table, were bowls of his mother’s katsudon, its taste so inextricably linked to feelings of love and protection he had missed so agonizingly much in the eight months he had passed in the dangerous, alien, and hostile Digital World.

Or, as it turned out when they finally stumbled in a cabin, greeted by a bunch of _extremely_ relieved camp guides, just about ten minutes in their “real” one. 

“So, what were they talking about on the news that has you kids so glum?” Miss Awata asked as she and Kaoruko sat on the couch next to one another, the woman reaching for a cookie herself. “Something about the camp?”

Izuku felt his entire body tense and gulped down the new wave of grief that hit him, then quickly gave Kaoruko a glance, unsure how exactly to answer, or if he even should. Kaoruko met his eyes, then smiled sadly and reached for his hand with her own bigger one, an action that Izuku noticed her mother eyeing with a weird expression on her face, like she had been doing for most of his and Kaoruko’s interactions since the previous day.

“Yes, they were talking about the three people still missing and…” she hesitated and sniffled loudly, her eyes taking a wet sheen, “A-and we knew them. They were our… we- we were... friends.” 

Her mother looked down with a stricken expression of her own, and hesitantly pulled her in a side hug. When Kauroku leaned into her, the older woman put her chin over her daughter’s head, rubbing her shoulder. “I’m sure they are fine, sweetie,” she comforted her daughter, “They are probably just lost on the mountains. Half of the heroes in the entire prefecture are looking for them right now; I’m sure they will be found soon. Your father even told me they called in that hero you’re such a big fan of, Waveblitz! Wouldn’t it be cool if _he_ ended up being the one to find them?”

As she said that, Izuku’s mind started working overtime, thinking back to his earliest conversations with the teen to try and remember who this ‘Waveblitz’ even was. The first few days in the Digital World had been interspersed with occasional small talk as their group tentatively came to know one another, and as often happened, the conversation steered itself in the direction of favourite heroes and such. Whenever it did, Izuku always ended up taking charge of the conversation, listing what abilities, statistics, and memorable achievements he could remember writing in his notebooks about whatever hero they were talking about, even for the relatively recent and obscure ones like Waveblitz, much to the genuine interest and amusement of the others. 

To his own surprise, though, even Izuku himself found that topic becoming uninteresting after a while, as they found themselves more and more on edge about their dire situation and reminiscing about such things fell lower and lower on their priority list, so he hadn’t had much occasion to think back on his hero trivia knowledge for months outside of the rare occasions when it helped them out against their foes. Still, it took just a few seconds to recall who the hero was, and why Kaoruko had been such a big fan of him. 

Waveblitz was a young, handsome (in Kaoruko’s own words) hero that operated on the coast. He had a very interesting hydrokinesis quirk that allowed him to shape relatively small amounts of water he touched, with his upper limit being about equal to the volume of his own body, in whatever form he needed, the resulting object being near unbreakable until he released his quirk or the effect expired by itself if he didn’t touch the construct for a few minutes. More interesting to Kaoruko was a useful side-mutation that allowed the young hero to store increased amounts of oxygen in his blood to hold his breath for inhuman amounts of time; these facets of his quirk being a lot like the quirk of Kaoruko’s father, a scuba diving teacher and marine salvager with the ability of storing and releasing atmospheric gases in the cells of his body. She had actually even met the hero in person a few times because of her father, as they had occasionally worked together in the retrieval of stolen properties from the lairs of water-based villains that plagued the port cities of the island. 

Something struck him as weird, though... why would they enlist his help in a research and rescue effort on a mountain zone? He worked almost exclusively at sea or very close to it. As cool as he and his quirk were, the man never showed the ability to manipulate water while mixed with sand or, more pertinent to the mountain setting, mud... and even if he could, the amount was so tiny that it was borderline useless in a large scale operation like this. 

The only reason he could think of why they would include his help would be to take advantage of his diving experience to explore the bottom of the river and lake at the valley by the camp, just in case the authorities thought the others had... ended... up… drow-

As he realized where that train of thought was leading him, a wave of ice creeped up Izuku’s spine and his breath freezed in his lungs. “ _NO!_ ” he yelped with a shrill cry as he whirled to face the two women, “ _Don’t say that!_ ”

When he turned, though, he found they were already staring at him with odd expressions, and Izuku felt a rush of blood run up his face as he quickly realized he had been muttering _again_ , despite the many, many attempts of the others to quell this dangerous habit of his. The older Awata was wide eyed with a look of startled surprise and horrified realization about what she had inadvertently implied, while Kaoruko, on the other hand, was wearing a grim frown, her eyes not really looking at _him_ as she clearly mulled over the possibility Izuku had brought up. 

Before anyone could say anything, though, he felt a familiar phantom pull at the limits of his consciousness, and immediately heard a rustling of blankets as another, shrill voice piped up from behind him. 

“I’M AWAKE! What happened? Why did you scream? Are we under attack? Izu, quick, behind me! Imma beat the- wait, is- is that _food?_ ”

Izuku turned to see his partner now wide awake, only his head visible above the nest of blankets he was stuck in, his usually small eyes widened comically as they stared at the food on the table, a small drop of drool at the corner of his mouth while he tried to shimmy his way out of his restraints. Despite the somber mood, Izuku couldn’t help but giggle at the display, his chest becoming a little lighter, and reached to free the small Digimon from the blanket cocoon.

“Yes, Gummy, those are called cookies,” Izuku said. “Miss Awata made them for us; make sure to thank her before-” 

“ _Thanksmissawataforthefood_ !” Gummy squealed way too fast to be actually intelligible to anyone not used to him doing so, as he finally got loose from the blanket and jumped on the low table. Immediately, he pounced on a cookie, too large to fit in his small mouth, and after pulling it out of the plate with only his mouth; he started downright _ravaging_ it, crumbs flying everywhere while he made very loud _sounds_ of appreciation.

Izuku stood frozen on the spot for a few seconds, his hands still holding the blanket, before he slowly turned to the two women to find the older Awata glaring at the oblivious Digimon on the table and his obvious lack of care for table manners, while Kaoruko looked down at him with amusement clear on her face. She then turned to her mother with a sly grin, “Hey ma’, I think he likes them,” she said, tilting her head, while miss Awata turned and looked back at her with a strongly unamused expression. 

Kaoruko’s smile just sharpened, taunting but not unkind, and she raised her arms in mock submission, “Hey, at least this time he thanked you before diving in,” she continued, “That’s an improvement compared to last night. And besides, he’s just, like, thirty-six hours old. Didn’t you always tell _me_ to be more patient with kids?”

The tense silence that followed was only disturbed by the loud noises of Gummy eating like there was no tomorrow in the background, and even Izuku himself found himself hesitant to break it. After a few seconds that felt way longer than they actually were, Miss Awata just snorted, rolling her eyes, and stood up from the couch, muttering “You’re impossible”. For a moment, Izuku felt a pit forming in his stomach, worried that his friend had upset her mother so shortly after finally being reunited with her just to defend him and his partner, but his worry melted away when the woman passed in front of him on her way to the door and he saw she was wearing a small, relieved smile of her own. 

As the woman went out of sight, Kaoruko started snickering, her head resting on the back of the couch. “Oh, man, I never thought I would miss riling her up this much, I really needed that…” She said with a sigh, a nostalgic smile on her face.

Izuku just reviewed the entire exchange, his fingers holding his chin and his brows scrunched up in confusion, “You have fun… by making her mad? But- but why? That’s _not_ nice! I don’t get it…”

“Oh, Izuku…” Kaoruko smiled, and reached to ruffle his hair, “You little quirky genius, don’t worry; this is something you’ll understand when you’re older.”

Izuku pouted and looked away from her, a little upset by the usual vague answer, but the hand in his hair felt nice so he didn’t move away, “You guys always say that, but never explain what you mean…” he muttered.

Kaoruko just laughed harder, and this time Izuku actually pulled away and moved further on the couch, crossing his arms and started grumbling under his breath, pointedly ignoring her. He then turned to meet Gummy’s eyes, who had been observing the entire exchange, his face covered by crumbs. His partner reached for the last remaining cookie, leaving the plate empty─ _Hold on, did he really just eat ALL of them?_ \-- and turned to Izuku.

“Hey Izu, Izu! You want the last one? They’re really super good!” he offered excitedly, sliding on the table closer to him with the cookie held in his mouth.

At his side, Kaoruko’s laughter immediately choked out with a screech, “Hold on, _What? You ate them all?_ ! How- When did you even- Gummy! Those were my favourite, I only had one, and you didn’t even leave another for me??? _How could you?!_ ” she asked, looking down at the Gummymon with an heartbroken expression. This time it was Izuku’s turn to snicker, earning a betrayed look from the older girl. 

Gummy slightly turned to face her, the treat still hanging from his mouth, and made an exaggeratedly confused expression. “But… That was the rule... We partner Digimon _and Izu_ always get the bigger serving of food. We, because we might need to evolve at any time, and Izu ‘cause he’s little.’ You already had your portion, and Izuku had only one as well, so he should get at least another. Why are you getting angry at me?”

“Because we are not-” She almost screamed, before biting her lip and throwing a glance at the door, before bending closer to them and starting to whisper-yell instead, “ _Because we are not in the Digital World anymore! We are NOT at risk of being attacked at any time anymore, or to be left starving and defenseless by missing a meal, damnit, you_ should _have understood it by now!_ We explained it to you so many times alre-” As she was saying it, Izuku finally noticed how Gummy’s eyes were crinkled with mirth, and his gelatinous body was shaking as if he was holding back laughter.

In an instant, both him and Kaoruko had the same, identical realization.

He knew perfectly what he had done, _and he had done it on purpose._

“You little- _get over here!_ ” Kaoruko roared in righteous anger as she lunged at him while Izuku let out a snort halfway between a gasp and laughter, a little upset by Gummy’s prank at the expense of their friend, but knowing full well she probably wouldn’t actually mind that much. 

Also, he couldn’t deny that it _was_ kind of funny, in a mean sort of way.

“Izu, quick, catch!” Before Kaoruko’s grasping hands could reach him, Gummy quickly launched the cookie in Izuku’s direction, and he fumbled a bit as he caught it. Immediately Kaoruko ceased her assault on Gummy, who quickly hopped off and hid under the table. The girl turned to him with pleading eyes, her hands joined together in front of her. 

“Izuuukuuu…” she sing-songed, while slowly leaning towards him, “Could you please be a good kid and give me that cookie? Pretty please? Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top? You wouldn’t be such a monster like _that_ little terror-” she jerked her head towards the approximate position of Gummy, “-and deprive me of my favourite treat? Made by my own mom? After all this time I spent without either? Pleeeeease?” 

“Izu, no! Don’t let her convince you!” Gummy supplied, barely peeking out from the safety of under the table, “She was being mean to you! Take your reven- oh, _c’mon Izu!_ ”

Before he had even started his second sentence, Izuku was already offering the cookie back to Kaoruko, who looked down at it with mild surprise written all over her face. While he had found the entire exchange funny, he had felt too bad for his friend to not do it. 

“That was not very nice, Gummy, and we are guests in her home, you shouldn’t upset her like that. Besides, this…” he stopped, and quickly wet his lips trying to think how to convey to his partner what he wanted to say, “Food for some people is… more than just something to get energy. Sometimes a favourite food, prepared by someone important to us, like a mom, is a tangible proof of love and care, and has a particular taste that only that person can give it. Like- like my mom’s Katsudon. It’s my favourite food, and if I can I always eat it when we go to a diner or restaurant, but it’s just- it’s just not the same thing, you know? I guess you still can’t really understand what I mean because you only just started eating food in our world, and you only ate food Miss Awata prepared, but that… that’s something we… sometimes it’s actually a sort of food, but more on an _emotional_ level. It… it’s not right to deprive her of that, because it’s not just taking simple food away, it's more like… taking away a good emotion.”

Silence fell on the three, and Izuku blushed _hard,_ painfully aware of how stilted and awkward his explanation came off. Gummy slowly scuttled from under the table, staring up at him with his head tilted to the side, “Wow, Izuku, that sounded really smart, but I’m not sure I get it… I mean, food is food, no matter where it’s from. I’m happy to eat because it helps make me stronger and protect you guys, so I _kind of_ get how food is like an emotion, but that’s about it...” he trailed off, like he was thinking over, then just shook his head in surrender and turned to Kaoruko, “Nope, can’t figure it out. I guess that’s another complicated human thing I need to learn, sorry.” 

Kaoruko kept switching her eyes between the two of them, then let out a low groan, and hid her face in her hands, worry and confusion roiling in his stomach. “Kaoruko, are- are you okay? Did we say something wrong?” he asked hesitantly. Kaoruko peeked between her fingers, one solitary golden eye staring at him for a second, before she let her hands fall and sighed. “Yes, Izuku, I’m okay, it’s just… You really are just too good of a kid sometimes, you know?” She said looking at him a bit sadly, much to his evident confusion. She then reached to grab the cookie from his hand, snapped it in half, and offered one piece back at him.

“I was _mostly_ just messing with you, Izuku,” she said, “I wouldn’t have minded that much if you had ended eating it all, just because I’ve seen you like them a lot too, and I would have been happy if you had been happy too. Izuku…” this time she was the one to trail off, clearly thinking over her words, “You are allowed to be a kid, now, you know? To be a bit selfish and a brat. Even during the worst times, when we fought and yelled at each other, you’ve always been this… stalwart little hero, trying to keep us together, to do right by us before yourself. But now we are safe, we are home, you have me, and Gummy, and all the others, when they’ll come back. WHEN.” She snapped before Izuku could voice any of the doubts whirling in his head, and dropped a half biscuit in his hand, leaving her hand over his. 

“And I can promise you that we’ll keep being your friends no matter what happens from now on, just as you kept being ours. I’m not gonna get upset just because you happen to eat one extra cookie instead of me. Especially when _someone else_ -” and she turned to glare down at Gummy, who rushed back under the table with an ‘ _eeep’,_ “-ate at least half a dozen of them by himself. Besides, I can just bribe my mom to make me more by offering to do some extra chores or something. But, uh, thanks for this anyway, it was nice of you.” She concluded raising up her own half cookie with a sheepish smile, and Izuku felt his own eyes tingling with happy tears as he smiled back. 

Kaoruko quickly swallowed her cookie and leaned back on the couch, reaching for the remote and changing channels. “Now, why don’t we find a channel talking about All Might so you can finally show Gummy here what you’ve been prattling on about to him for months?”

* * *

_If Izuku hadn’t been worried out of his mind, he would have probably found the forest he was in incredibly beautiful._

_The tall, twisting trees surrounding the clearing climbed up dozens of feet, their large leaves forming a roof above their heads. As the ring of trees proceeded away from the corner of the clearing they were currently tucked in to the large pool of water on the other side, among them started appearing much shorter trees, but that compensated the loss in height with countless, beautifully intricate exposed roots, until only they remained by the time the treeline touched the still, green-hued water._

_Problem was, there was no way this was still the same forest as the one of their camp._

_Even without much in the way of knowledge of plants beforehand, during the various camp activities they had been taught to recognize at least a few of the most common one, and none of the ones he saw here were even remotely similar, looking more at place in the tropical forests he sometimes saw on tv. Then there was the fact that he had not seen a single large slope yet, the forest seemingly existing on a near perfectly level plain, and certainly not the mountain he had spent the last week on._

_But as he listened in the conversation happening a few feet from him, that and many other concerns had to be put away._

_“So, let me get this straight… ” the older boy with the lizard mutation asked, sitting cross legged on the ground, Izuku on his right while the lanky counselor and the blue girl were on his other side. One of his scaled hands was pinching the bridge of his nose, his fingers rubbing his eyes, clearly exhausted by trying to put together the ramblings of the odd creature in front of him._

_Izuku, though, was more interested by how some of the scales on the older kid’s forearm were glowing a bright, hot red as the blood that had spilled from the cut across them dried up and flaked off. It was an honestly ingenious display of quirk exploitation, using his own fire-related quirk_ and _heat resistant skin to seal and disinfect the wound at once, and Izuku really really wanted to just start asking questions, but..._

_“We are on… another... world?”_

_“Yeah! The Digital World!”_

_The current conversation was too important to interrupt, and he understood that. Besides, if he interrupted them and started blabbering questions, he was afraid that his quirk-related curiosity would just make them angry and turn them against him like it always did with Kacchan and his other classmates, and right now, he really, REALLY didn’t want to be left alone._

_“And you… guys… are this world’s inhabitants. Digimon. As in, Digital monsters. As in, both you and this entire world… you’re all actually made of living… data?” the boy asked again, gesturing vaguely around, “And if that isn’t enough, you were all waiting for us, here, in the middle of this forest, and I repeat, waiting specifically for US,” he waved at himself and the other people in the clearing, “Because you… somehow knew, for a fact, that you would meet your… ‘fated partners’ here, and that they would be humans specifically carrying these… digivices," he tapped the small blue device on the ground next to him, the same all of them had, just with different colors, “Is that right?”_

_“Yes! Yes! Exactly, partner!” his interlocutor, a small teal dragon with red wings and horns nodded excitedly, before stopping and tilting its head, “I mean, more or less. We didn’t know precisely who our partners would be, we just knew they would be humans. But! The instant we saw you falling from the sky, we just_ knew _it had to be you! And when your digivices reacted to us, we knew we were right!”_

_Izuku had actually woken up a little distance away from the others, so he wasn’t completely sure what that ‘reaction’ the dragon was talking about was, but he guessed it had been the same thing that had happened to the small creature that he had seen when he first opened his eyes, sitting on his torso and looking down at him with an excited, fanged smile_ uncomfortably close _to his face._

_As he had been yelling and trying to shove it off, obviously startled, the device somehow still in his hand had burst out in the same green light as before, but this time it had enveloped both him and the small creature, Gummymon. When that happened, it had become, if possible, even more cheerful and excited, and had wasted no time declaring them ‘fated partners’ and vowing to be the ‘best Digimon ever’ for him._

_As it happened, the blue girl, Miss Kaoruko, as she had introduced herself as, had burst out from the undergrowth, and after pausing a moment as the glow faded, helped him up and tried to lead them away from the small creature. But after some aimless wandering while being followed by said creature; during which the girl seemed to have no idea what to do with Izuku, alternating between almost completely ignoring him and forcefully leading him by hand; they had caved in and accepted it as their guide when it had promised to lead them to ‘the other humans’. After taking pity on the ‘Gummymon,’ as the small creature struggled to keep pace with them, Izuku had decided to start carrying it around himself, much to the girl’s dismay; but as the creature showed no hostility and pointed out small trail after small trail free of plants and shrubs, she stopped voicing her concerns._

_They had kept walking until they had heard the alarmed screams of the others, running towards them just in time to see the small dragon breathing a narrow cone of flames on one of those orange hairy toads forcing it away from the scaled teen, one of the black, bladed spines jutting from their back broken off and lodged in the teen’s arm. Other two toads were being similarly driven away by other two monsters, and after ensuring no one else had any injury, they had all sit down, leading to the current situation._

_Well, not exactly_ all _of them._

_“I_ still _call bullshit on_ all _of this!” the angry blonde girl yelled from a little away for the umpteenth time, and while everyone else just ignored her, Izuku flinched slightly, Gummymon looking up at him from its place still between his arms._

_“Yeah, partner! We call bullshit! WE CALL BULLSHIT!” Agreed enthusiastically the_ child-sized monster bee _just casually buzzing nearby as it tried for the umpteenth time to hover closer to the girl, and just like every other attempt before it was thwarted by the girl wildly swinging a branch at the giant bug, her hair a disheveled mess from when the bee had briefly managed to land on her head with its dull pincers and claws._

_“Errr…” the lanky counselor interrupted, gulping nervously when the dragon turned its piercing red eyes to him, “S-sorry to interrupt you, and not that we are not all very grateful for you and your friends saving us from those… orange… toad… digimon, I guess, that attacked us, but I have to agree with her on this. You do realize this is a bit… unbelievable, right?” he asked the dragon, before turning to the girl, “Also, uh, Miss, remember there is a child here, so please stop swearing.” he turned to the girl, his voice squeaking._

_“Yeah, yeah, sorry. At least_ someone _here still has a sliver of brain somewhat funct- HEY, give that back!” supplied once again the angry blonde girl, and Izuku turned to see that the giant bee had somehow managed to steal the stick, and was now flying away from the pursuing girl while holding it in its many dull claws, its buzzing sounding almost like laughter while peeking back at the girl with its large, not very insect-like eyes._

_“Funbeemon, please don’t make her even_ more _upset, she looks angry enough already…” said another, low voice from inside a bush right behind the lanky counselor and Izuku saw him physically shudder, before both of them turned around to look at the source. Barely visible through the foliage and having been completely silent for a while now, was the last of the Digimon that he had found already with the other three when he and the blue girl had finally reunited with them, and by far the most unsettling of them, being an almost perfect conglomerate of villainous features._

_The best way Izuku could describe it was a solitary, perfectly round head mostly covered by a badly sewn together dark blue napkin, a pair of batlike wings sprouting from its sides, and a skull emblazoned on its forehead. What little of the body beneath the cloth was visible consisted of a mix of sickly blue skin and ratty black fur, and under it all were two animalistic legs tipped off by disproportionately huge blood red claws. The worst part for Izuku, though, were its eyes. Two cold catlike bright yellow eyes over a pitch black sclera staring silently at them from the shadow behind the leaves._

_“Let them be, Demidevimon! Funbeemon is just having fun, bonding with their partner in their own way! If anything, we should learn from their example! Come out of that bush and engage your own partner as well, so you can better know each other!” the small dragon chittered loudly, a pointy claw raised at the lanky counselor and, by extension, at the bush right behind him._

_In the background, Izuku saw that the angry blonde girl was now trying to pelt the bug with rocks as it flew away from her, the small piece of elastic cloth that had previously held at least some of her hairs in a ponytail securely held between the mandibles of the bee, that hair now plastered across her face and whipping around almost as if defying gravity. Not a single rock was hitting its target, though, as the giant bug displayed impressive flying skills weaving through the stones, even though that might have had to do with the fact that the girl’s long hair was now getting in front of her eyes._

_“Yeah! Demidevimon, come out!” cheered Gummymon creature in Izuku’s arms, as it tried to hug Izuku back with his short ears “Their hugs feel super nice! You should ask your human to hug you too!”_

_Izuku watched as the lanky teen physically recoiled at the suggestion, his wide eyes going from the small gum-like creature (wait, was that why it was called Gummymon?) to the bush, as he seemed ready to bolt away at the first sign of the small monster moving._

_“...I would really rather not,” whimpered the creature in the bush in a small, fearful voice. The counselor seemed to mull over the situation for a few seconds, before slowly leaning back in his sitting position, looking slightly relieved._ Very _slightly._

_“Yeah- okay- sorry to interrupt you, but I really need you to run that by me again,” interrupted the scaled boy once again, and Izuku turned to see his fingers massaging his temples._

_“Didn’t they say, about_ literally five minutes ago _, that their names were Pagumon,” he asked pointing first at the bush, and then at the large bee buzzing around the exhausted girl catching her breath, hand on her knees, “and, uh- Pru… puru...”_

_“Puroromon,” supplied the lanky teen._

_“Yes, that mess of name, thank you. Or… did you guys randomly decide to change your names when you… uh, somehow transformed and doubled in size to fight those... orange... toad monsters from before? Speaking of which, what was the deal with that?” he asked._

_“Those were the Gizamon,” snarled the dragon, his eyes narrowing in anger while his tail started thumping on the ground, “they are just a group of cowardly, vile bullies that only prey on those weaker than them. Now that we’ve evolved and demonstrated we can fight them on equal ground, they will not dare face us again.”_

_“...I meant the transformation, not the bloody hairy toads,” said the teen, and Izuku could basically_ hear _his patience nearing the snapping point in his voice._

_“Oh, that was us digivolving, of course! Thanks to our connection to you and our desire to protect you all, we were granted the energy and resolve needed to go beyond our previous forms and grow into the next stage of our growth through glorious combat!” the small dragon put his claws on his sides and puffed up proudly._

_“Woooooow! That’s so cool! I’m sorry I missed it and couldn’t help you… I can’t wait to evolve so I can fight better too!” said the little sludge monster in Izuku’s arms, bouncing slightly with sparkling eyes._

_Izuku smiled down at him, his cheerful and determined demeanor reminding him a little of when Kacchan and their other friends were still waiting for their quirks to manifest and talked about what cool things they would be able to do. Back when he was happy to call them his friends and just thinking about them didn’t make the burns hidden under his sleeves ache._

_Then he raised his eyes and looked over to the older kids. The scaled boy was sitting completely slouched, looking straight at the dragon with a comical level of exhaustion in his eyes, while the angry girl had stopped trying to hit her bug companion, still a bit away from the rest of them but now clearly paying attention while the Bee… mon had latched on a nearby tree. The lanky counselor had a pensive look on his face and fiddled with his hand while stealing glances at the winged monster hiding in the bush behind him, and lastly..._

_“Errr… sorry, mister dragon?” Izuku timidly raised his hand._

_The dragon turned to him, and then up, following his raised hand with a confused expression. Izuku flushed a little and lowered it, “Can I ask you a question?” he asked._

_“My name now is Dracomon, little human! And sure, what is it?” the dragon answered._

_“What about her?” Izuku pointed at miss Kaoruko, who had mostly stayed quiet during the entire conversation, switching between listening attentively and fiddling with her own weird device._

_And that had not been greeted any ‘partner’ of her own in all the time since they had appeared in this forest._

_When he pointed out that fact, everyone turned to look at her, while the dragon seemed to grow uncertain, and exchanged some looks with the other Digimon, who just blankly stared back at him. He then turned to the girl, who was now looking back at him with a curious expression._

_“Yeah…” she started, looking hesitantly at the lizard, “Not that I would mind being left out of all this craziness, but… Well, I was dragged here too, and I also have one of these things,” she said, raising her bright pink device, “So… shouldn’t there be another one of you guys here as my ‘partner’ or whatever?”_

_The small dragon (Dracomon, Izuku had to remember) scratched his snout while he looked at her with vacant eyes, clearly lost on what to say._

_“I don’t know… it has always been only the four of us since I can remember...” he started, his claw now tapping his chin, “Gummymon, are you sure there was no other Digimon nearby when you found them or woke up?” he finally asked._

_“Nu-uh,” Gummymon answered first, shaking his head, “Even while they were asleep, no one else arrived, it was just me. I thought she was supposed to be the partner of one of you that maybe had just gone the wrong way...”_

_A deep, grave-like silence followed, only broken by the sounds of the forest around them, no one knowing exactly what to do or say. The situation they were in was too strange, too impossible to make sense, and even if a large part of him wanted to believe that everything was going to be fine, that a hero would swoop in any second now and save them, he realized that it probably wasn’t going to happen._

_“So, guys, what do we do now?” the scaled teen’s voice broke Izuku’s train of thought, and he looked at him again, desperate for a distraction, “We need to find a way back to civilisation… considered the sun is already up, someone must have noticed we’re missing since last night, and they are probably looking for us. I would suggest making a fire as a smoke signal here, but…” he glanced worriedly at the pool of water on the other side of the clearing, one hand rubbing where one of the monsters had stabbed his arm with their bladed spikes, “I’m a bit concerned that those toad thingies might come back, I would rather we find another clearing, if you agree.”_

_“But- but there are no other humans here! I told you, this is the Digital World and-” started Dracomon again._

_“And you really think I can just believe something like that out of nowhere?” snarled the teen, the dark brown of his scales slightly fading to red for an instant, heat rolling from him, before he took a breath and stared down the dragon, “Look, I’m grateful you guys helped us, and I'm sure you mean well. Really. But your entire story is way too weird for us to actually believe it.”_

_“Oh,_ thank goodness _, for a while I thought you were really eating up everything they were saying,” said the blonde girl, her voice so thick with relief it was almost palpable. Izuku himself felt a lot better, recognizing that the teen had a point. If they were still somewhere in Japan, or even their own world, there was hope some hero would come to save them!_

_“You… You don’t believe us?” Dracomon said in disbelief, a hurt look in his eyes._

_“Look, I think you guys have your heart in the right place, and I believe that YOU believe what you said it’s true,” conceded the teen, and Izuku noticed something like regret flashing over his face as the dragon’s own face fell, before he steeled himself, “But, really, another world? It’s a lot more likely that you’re just the result of some crazy scientists doing experiments involving quirks on wild animals for some scheme of their own, and that just fed you a load of weird lies for… some reason I’m not even gonna try to make sense of. Then kidnapped us or something using their quirks or some other monsters to cause that weird-ass rainstorm… and tidal wave…”_

_“And teleportation to this place,” added the lanky teen with a grimace, “Between the odd wetland terrain and these trees, I think it’s pretty clear we are not in the mountains anymore, possibly not even in Japan.”_

_“Right. That could be really bad, I just hope we’re not stranded,_ alone _, in a tropical island in the middle of nowhere,” mumbled the teen._

_“I... don’t think we are,” said Miss Kaoruko, pulling out a cellular phone from her pocket, much to Izuku’s surprise. The other two jumped to their feet and walked towards her, while Izuku just stood still, stunned. If she had it the whole time, why didn’t she call for help? Unless..._

_“Wait, you had your phone with you this whole time?” choked the lanky teen, voicing exactly Izuku’s thoughts. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner? You could have called for hel-” he stopped as the girl gave him the most deadpan expression Izuku had ever seen on anyone’s face._

_The googled boy cursed under his breath, then stated with a flat voice, “Let me guess: it doesn’t work.”_

_“Yes and no, that’s the weird thing…” miss Kaoruko started, tapping at its screen, “It… doesn’t seem to have any mobile range, but it picks up an almost endless list of wi-fi networks, so I_ think _we must be at least somewhat near a civilized place. Except, every single one of them has gibberish names and the phone seems completely unable to connect to even a single one of them. And they keep switching around, like, a network appears for five seconds, then disappears.”_

_“I told you! This is the Digital World! There are endless streams of data flowing through everything! Your device is probably just picking up those!” Cried again the small dragon, but everyone except Izuku barely gave him a glance while they rounded up around the girl and tried to make the phone work._

_As the dragon looked at them dismayed, the bat-like monsters finally came out of the bush, causing Izuku to flinch, but it ignored him and just went to the side of the dragon. In the same way, the bee flew close to them, looking at the teens with a troubled expression._

_Izuku felt the small creature in his arms squirm, and looked down, finding it staring up at him, and in his expression, for a moment, Izuku saw himself when, alone in the bathroom in front of a mirror, looking over the small burns on his arms, he started thinking that maybe his lifelong friends weren’t such anymore, or didn’t want to be, and a terrified, cold fear of loneliness swept him._

_So he just hugged a little harder, and smiled, and some of the fear seemed to leave the little creature in his arms._

_“Ok, now stop it!” snapped the blue girl, and Izuku turned to see her pushing the others away, while she put the phone back in her pocket and raised the other device, “I’ve already tried everything I could, the phone is just not going to work, ok? Just get over it and look at this instead.”_

_She started pressing a short sequence of buttons on her ‘digivice’, a large, round hologram appearing above it, and she turned it around. Izuku immediately noticed at its center was a small pink dot, surrounded by other four, each the color of one of their digivices, while a purple arrow at the margin of the image pointed at something off screen, and like a compass kept pointing the same direction even as she turned the device and screen around._

_“I think this is supposed to be some sort of radar,” she said “Beside these colored dots, that probably represent these devices, there is that other signal. I think we should check what it is, it could be another camper or, if we’re really lucky, it could lead to somewhere civilised, maybe where those wi-fi signals are coming from.”_

_“Yeah, as if we’d ever be that lucky,” grumbled the blonde girl, before she gave a smile and semi-gently tapped Miss Kaoruko’s shoulder with a closed fist, “But still, good job finding that out, Bluey! You gotta teach us how to use those gadget thingies too!”_

_“Thank you, let’s just- wait, Bluey?” asked Miss Kaoruko with a somewhat offended expression._

_“Well, I don’t know your name, so…” shrugged the girl, before she stopped for an instant and furrowed her brows, giving everyone else a glance too, “Wait, now that I think about it, I don’t know any of your names either…”_

_“We can introduce ourselves on the way,” interrupted the scaled teen as he turned and stretched his legs, “The sooner we go, the sooner we make sense of this situation and get back home.”_

_The blonde grumbled under her breath, but followed suit, just like Miss Kaoruko, while the counselor flung his backpack over his shoulders first. Izuku also started to follow them, but noticed that someone else_ wasn’t _, and he turned to the other three Digimon in the clearing, all looking unsure what to do._

_“Are... you not coming with us?” he asked, and all three looked at him._

_“Should- should we?” asked Dracomon, stealing an uncertain glance at his supposed ‘partner’. “They made it pretty clear they don’t believe us, or-or want us around and- and I’m not sure what we are even supposed to do anymore… All we ever wanted was to be their partners, but…”_

_“O-Of course you should!” Izuku said, and from the corner of his eye he saw the others looking back at him. “Even if they have been a bit mean, I think- I think it’s because we are just a bit scared- We don’t know what happened, and we just want to get back home, but- but we don’t know this place, and we need you and- and even if we can’t be your ‘partners’, we can still be friends!” he said, before his voice broke as emotions sured through him._

_The three creatures looked at each other, before the dragon gave him a toothy smile, “Of course, little human! You’re right! We would be bad partners indeed if we just left you because of a minor disagreement! As long as you remain in this world, you can count on us to protect you from the vile Digimons of the wild!”_

_Izuku smiled back, feeling a little better, before he heard miss Kaoruko call him from the edge of the clearing. “Hey, brat- err- little Izuku, are you coming or not?”_

_Rubbing his eyes, he turned and ran after her, his own Digimon looking up at him in awe from his arms and the other three following suit._

* * *

Izuku woke up feeling thirsty, surprised he had fallen asleep at all, and quickly lifted himself to a sitting position, his mind going already a mile a minute to take stock of his surroundings like it was his second nature by now.

He immediately recognized the place, he was still in the Awata’s living room, and some of his wariness faded away as he stared at the by now somewhat familiar sea-themed trinkets scattered around the room, barely illuminated by the streetlight seeping from the window. Kaoruko was still sound asleep on the other side of the couch while Gummy was between the two of them, this time not cocooned in the blanket from before but merely covered by an edge of it, while the rest having been carefully draped over Izuku much to his own surprise, and the television he and Kaoruko had been watching when they fell asleep had been turned off.

He knew that the responsible had most likely been the older Miss Awata, and that, being Kaoruko’s mother, she meant absolutely no harm, but the simple fact that someone he wasn’t fully familiar with had been so close to him while he was unconscious and didn’t notice at all left him feeling noticeably upset with himself. Kaoruko could be forgiven for not noticing, this was _her_ home after all, and it was only natural she felt secure in here and let her guard down, but Izuku… 

Dismissing those thoughts with a shake of his head, he lifted the blanket and gently lowered it on Gummy, who snuggled further into them, stood up and started walking towards the door. As he cracked it open, he heard voices coming from down the corridor, and immediately stilled. Very, very slowly and quietly, he opened it more, and peeked out to make sure no one was near, the arm holding the doorknob tense and ready to slam it close if something turned out to be actually there.

No one else was in the dark corridor, but he saw a light coming from the end of it, pouring out of an open door, from what he had memorized as the kitchen. Tightening his grip over his digivice, in the hope of being able to force at least one digivolution out of Gummy if something happened, he slowly walked forward in the manner he had been taught to to avoid making noise, lightly putting down his toes first, then slowly lowering his heel, finding the whole process to be much easier now that he was wearing just socks and not the clunky boots he had been using the night he was spirited away.

As he approached the lit doorway, he heard miss Awata’s voice talking animatedly. Or as animatedly as she could given the late hour anyway. At the same time judging from the noises of cutlery and munching, someone else was with her, eating, most likely her husband, that had probably just returned home.

“...telling you, it’s so weird! She kept hugging me, and this afternoon, when I sat on the couch with her, she even leaned on me! By herself! Not to mention how she has been behaving with little Midoriya… Do you remember your nephew’s birthday last month? How she could barely stand being in the same room as her cousins and their friends? Now she keeps an hawk’s eye on the kid, never letting him out of her sight! Yesterday, I found her pacing anxiously in front of the bathroom while he was just taking a shower, and no, it wasn’t because she needed to go, dear, trust me. I have to admit, he is far more well behaved than most kids his age, so maybe she isn’t bothered by him as much, but still...” 

“Yeah, that’s really weird… I mean, if we don’t have to deal with her teenage angst for a while I’ll be more than happy, but…. this is worrying. Something must have happened during that camp… Did she say anything about it?” replied another voice, that Izuku recognized as Kaoruko’s father, that he had only met briefly the day before and from whom Kaoruko had clearly inherited her complexion. As the man spoke, though, the sounds of someone eating didn’t stop, and Izuku faltered for an instant. Was there someone else with them in the room?

“No, not a thing… I tried to pry here and there, but neither of them said much… Well, she usually speaks more freely with you anyway, maybe _you_ should try tomorrow.” Miss Awata grumbled, as Izuku slinked closer to the room. After a few instants of silence, the woman spoke up again.

“Actually… while we were watching the news she confessed that they had become good friends with the three kids still missing, maybe she’s just really worried about them and has started hovering on Izuku to compensate?”

A sudden sound of metal dropping in a plate made Izuku flinch, but it was the voice that followed that made him stumble on thin air and─ literally─ floored him.

“You mean─ Izuku had managed to make _other_ friends during the camp? And they have gone missing? Oh, oh goodness… I─ I had no idea, he didn’t tell me anything and─” her words interrupted abruptly as Izuku tripped and fell on the floor, rather audibly so in the silent dead of the night.

But Izuku, despite the habits so ingrained in him, found that he couldn’t care less if he had unceremoniously fallen on the floor, making his presence known to those he had been trying to hide from, because he _knew_ that voice, and hearing it for real, not through a telephone, and so close to him made his heart feel like it was bursting at the seams.

So, abandoning every pretense of stealth, he scurried to his feet immediately, and before he had even properly righted himself up, he was turning around the corner of the wall and bursting in the kitchen, paying no mind to the gasps of Kaoruko’s parents. All his undivided attention was only for the other woman in the room, sitting at the table with wide, green eyes staring back at him.

“Mom!” he half yelled, before tackling her in a hug that almost capsized the chair she was sitting on, and her hands immediately found their familiar place on his back and hairs, as he squeezed her as hard as he could, her familiar warmth searing his body and making the moment all the more achingly real.

They had been constantly in contact, with her calling him every few hours via Kaoruko’s phone, but no phone call could ever come close to bringing him the sheer relief and happiness that having her there did.

After a few instants, he looked up at her face through the slight blur of the tears already gathering at the corner of his eyes. If he had to be honest, she looked pretty horrible. Her hairs were grimy and disheveled, her shirt was a battlefield of wrinkles, there were sizeable bags under her also watering eyes and she held her head and shoulders in a slight, odd tilt. He realized, with some small amount of guilt, that all of that had probably been caused by having basically lived and slept in her car for the last two days, just so she would ba able reach him as soon as possible, and as he looked at the half eaten plate of food on the table he wondered if she had even eaten properly during that time, or at all.

“Why didn’t─ _hic─_ you wake me up when you arrived?” he asked, trying to sound a little upset but failing miserably as his lungs twisted and his voice broke down in sobs.

“Izuku, oh honey…” she started, rubbing affectionately on his cheek with a watery smile of her own, “I’m sorry, but you were asleep, and looked so peaceful… I didn’t have the heart to wake you up.”

Izuku tried to say something more, but her voice, so close he felt her breath ghost over his face, and the look in her eyes he had so sorely missed finally dealt him the final blow and his dam broke down. And so, he hid his face in her shoulder and wept, after eight months spent dreaming of this moment, each and every day filled with fear and uncertainty and camaraderie and regret and heartbreak and frail hopes. And he wept for the others, for everyone that hadn’t made it, and for himself, because he would never be able to tell her or anyone else about them. As he wailed loudly, he felt her starting to cry as well, and thought that probably keeping her in the dark would be for the best.

After oh so many feelings and thoughts he would have never believed himself capable of but that he needed to scrape together and wear like an armor to survive, and the many, many horrendous actions he had to take to ensure that everyone else didn’t get hurt but that never stopped haunting him, he cherished losing himself to the sheer, simple reassurance and unconditional love radiating from her, taking it in as much as possible, like he was just a small tree bud freed from the winter snow and finally exposed to the warmth of the sun after months of dark and cold and-

“IZU!/ _Izuku!_ ” the sound of two voices yelling out his name broke him out of his spiraling thoughts, and raised his head from his mother’s shoulder just as Kaoruko skidded in front of the open door, fists closed and legs bent ready to spring in action, bubbles surrounding her, a pungent odour quickly following suit, while Gummy was crouched on her head, eyes narrowed and clearly primed to fight.

Immediately their eyes met his, then she raised them slightly, and Izuku could tell the exact instant they recognized his mother when they widened in realization, and while Kaoruko’s mouth opened in a small “o”, Gummy’s split in his characteristic fanged, excited grin before he jumped down, quickly scurrying in Izuku’s direction.

A fierce violet blush immediately spread on Kaoruko’s face as she righted herself up, plastering a strained smile on her face, clearly trying really hard to pretend the horrid smell now lingering in the room didn’t exist. “Hey dad, welcome back! How was work? And good evening, miss Midoriya! Nice to finally meet you! Sorry for the… dynamic entrance, I heard him crying and got a bit worried.” she said, giving his mom a little bow, while her father snickered and greeted her back. Miss Awata just groaned and stood up to open the kitchen’s windows and let fresh air in.

“Oh- oh, dear,” his mom chuckled nervously, reaching for a napkin on the table, wiping her eyes and somewhat subtly trying to cover her nose, “Hello, Miss Kaoruko, it’s good to finally meet in person Izuku’s own personal hero, please, call me Inko. And...” she lowered her gaze to the floor, where Izuku’s partner and best friend was looking up at them literally vibrating in excitement, “Hello to you too, Gummy! I’m happy to finally see you too!”

Before Izuku could slip free of his mother’s embrace to pick up his partner Digimon, the little creature coiled on himself like an odd, slimy spring and jumped up in her lap, making her yelp in surprise. 

“Hello Miss mama Inko!” he greeted her, “I’m so happy I can finally see you in person! Watching you through the tiny screen was weird! You looked _so small_!”

“Hello, Gummy,” she chuckled, before something else entered her expression, something that made her look sad and happy and happy at the same time, leaving Izuku confused and a little disquieted. “Please, just call me Inko, ok? I’m so, _so_ very happy to finally see you too. I─ I had stopped hoping that Izuku could ever─ ” She interrupted herself and sniffed loudly, looking like she was about to burst in tears again, and Gummy immediately slid forward, raising his ears in a gesture by now familiar to Izuku but that left Inko clearly confused.

“Mom, I think he wants a hug too,” Izuku told her, and she quickly glanced down at it, clearly unsure.

After hesitating for an instant, his mom reached down and grasped around its small body like it was a cat, her thumbs right under the small Digimon’s head, and slowly lifted it up. As she held it, though, a strange, stupefied expression washed over her face.

“Mom? Are you okay?” Izuku asked, looking up at her worryingly.

She blinked, looked at him, and then back at Gummy, then gave him a sad, wistful smile, “Yes, Izuku, it’s all okay… it’s just… he reminded me for a moment of when you were just a tiny little baby and I could lift you up like this,” she said, then shifted Gummy until she was almost cradling him in her arms, a somewhat nostalgic look in her eyes, “It’s just… it was a little unexpected, but I’m okay. And you, little Gummy? Are you comfortable?”

When Gummy didn’t answer, Izuku furrowed his brows. “Gummy?” he asked, only to be met by more, dead silence, and Izuku started worrying again. So he stood up on his toes to try to reach a little higher and look at his partner’s face, and when he did, the little Digimon had his brows furrowed, his mouth twisted in an uncertain pout, completely still and unresponsive.

Everyone else in the room was also silent, and Izuku could _feel_ their stares, the atmosphere in the kitchen going from the lackadaisical mood from a few moments before to a little tense and uncertain. His mom looked very unsure of what was happening, and shifted a little on her seat, without daring to move her arms too much from around the small sludge creature.

“...Gummy?” Izuku asked again, his voice hesitant, as he raised a finger, tempted to poke at his partner to hopefully snap him out of whatever was happening. As he was about to do it, Gummy finally moved, inching a little closer to Inko, careful to make sure his horn didn’t poke her, while the woman tightened her hug a little to prevent him from falling.

Gummy’s pout twisted a little more. 

Then, he slowly turned to Izuku, ignoring the finger that was maybe half an inch away from his face. “Izu, promise to not be mad?” he asked.

Izuku blinked down at him, slowly retracting his finger. “I- uh- Sure, I promise to not be mad-”

“Don’t,” interjected Kaoruko behind him, and Izuku turned to see her squinting her eyes at the small Digimon with clear suspicion, “It depends on what it is, Gummy. What’s the problem, _this time?_ ”

“It’s just that- I think-” Gummy started, before turning to look at a baffled Inko, then back at him, unease clear in his eyes, until he yelled, “I’m sorry, but I think I like her hugs more than yours!”

A split second of dead silence fell upon the room as everyone, Izuku included, processed what he said, the atmosphere relaxing a little, but before he could answer, his partner started ranting.

“I- I’m sorry! I know I’m your partner, and I’m supposed to like yours more than anyone else’s- at least I _think_ I am _\- But-_ it’s just- it’s just- I mean, you know it too, right? You told me you missed her hugs the most too and they were your favorites, and you’re right! She is- she is just SO SOFT!” he said loudly, burrowing further in her arms and chest. Izuku blinked trying to find something to say, but drew a blank. In the meantime, mister Awata started coughing, in a way that sounded a little like too much like laughter, and from behind him Kaoruko sounded like she was choking on something as well.

“And- and- and not only that!” Gummy continued, seemingly totally unaware of his surrounding, “I know that you are still little and will become bigger growing up, like Kaoruko and the others, so it’s only a matter of time, and I’m so so sorry, but- but-

“There is just SO MUCH MORE to hug with her!” he nearly screamed, his ears waving around.

A sudden slam took Izuku’s attention away from him, and turned to see Miss Awata having tripped and slammed the window close, while mister Awata’s coughing fit grew a lot worse. Behind him he heard Kaoruko squawking and turned just in time for her to start giggling uncontrollably, holding her stomach and nearly bent forward as she deteriorated into _wheezing_ with laughter, her eyes shining with mirthful tears. 

“Oh god- oh my god- I can’t believe- Gummy- I’m sorry- her _face!_ ” she managed to exhale between bursts of laughter as she held on the table for dear life.

Izuku then turned to his mother, and actually had to take a moment of pause at the never seen before look on her face. Her mouth was opening and closing wordlessly like a gaping fish, her eyes wide and pupils small as pinpricks as she looked down at the Digimon in her arms, while a bright red flush was slowly running over all her face from her cheeks and ears. He had to admit, it was kind of funny, but he wasn’t exactly sure what had caused it.

Izuku absentmindedly reached to pet Gummy’s head in reassurance that no, he wasn’t mad, while he took turns at looking at the other people in the room, a bit weirded out and unable to think why they had such a reaction at Gummy’s words or even say anything about it. After all, everything the small Digimon had said was true.

Still, he climbed up in his mother’s lap again, allowed himself to lean against her again, and closed his eyes. He felt Gummy’s smooth skin under his palm, Kaoruko’s bright, careless laughter in the background and the familiar warmth of his mom as she snaked an arm around him, and breathed easier than he had since he could remember.

It was not perfect, the rest of their friends were still missing, and he knew he would have to lie to his mom for a long, long time to protect Gummy and himself, but finally he felt at some true measure of peace.

He was finally, truly home.

* * *

_As he stared up at the sunset sky on the horizon, the dam he had built against the stem overwhelming feelings of dread that had built up since waking up in the odd jungle slowly shattered, and he drowned in them, his breath coming in sharp, painful, panicked gasps._

_Turning his head to the sides, desperate for a kind word, a gentle touch, anything, he saw that no reassurance was likely to come from the others, all standing near the edge of the cliff they had stopped by, the first point of the trail they had found to be devoid of trees blocking their vision, all staring at the darkening sky in various degrees of shock while paying little attention to the seemingly infinite expanse of jungle underneath._

_The lanky counselor, mister Chiirui, was openly gaping, the branch he had picked up to use as a walking stick was crumbling in his white-knucled grasp, layers upon layers of brightly colored lichens crawling from under his fingers and swallowing the rapidly rotting wood that, Izuku noticed, shattered in luminous particles and faded away._

_Mister Takashi, the boy with lizard scales, was looking up in utter disbelief, mouth open slack and arms at his sides, dangling limply like the goggles around his neck._

_Miss Ren, the loud blonde girl, looked both scared and angry at the same time, eyes flitting from the various strange unusual terrifying oddities that had petrified them so while cursing under her breath, her hands clenched but unable to close into proper fists without stabbing themselves on the girl’s pointy, strong nails._

_Miss Kaoruko was the only other one who seemed about to cry, her hands over her mouth while her golden eyes looked terrified and were brimming with tears._

_So, Izuku raised his head again, and stared._

_The setting sun had carried away with it the brightness of the day, and in the sky long lines had appeared, seemingly made of green light, previously invisible and now evident against the darker backdrop, intersecting one another to form a grid that covered the entire sky, spanning from horizon to horizon as far as the eye could see, making the entirety of the heavens above look alien and artificious in a way that primally unsettled him._

_Then there was the hole._

_It was like someone had thrown a humongous stone from space, and that stone had broken through the edge of the atmosphere like it was made of glass, leaving a large, looming cracked breach in the heavens looming above the land._

_Beyond that crack there was just a pitch, imperscrutable dark void devoid of even stars, with similarly pitch black cracks snaking from the edges of the hole for miles and miles, the true size of the hole and the cracks being impossible to truly comprehend. Every now and then, Izuku could see tongues of fire crawling through the cracks and at the edges of the hole, but disappeared soon after._

_Izuku was only mildly aware of the concerned words of their strange companions, and the small Gummymon creature pulling at his shorts with his short fangs to try get his attention, but Izuku was far too shocked to answer, and as he stared at the void in the sky, he felt like another had opened under his feet._

_This could NOT be just the work of some quirk, no matter how insane, how powerful. It was just too much, too unnatural, and he could feel the wrongness of it all in his bones._

_Dracomon’s earlier words rang again in his ears, drilling in his head, and he finally knew they were true, and their horrendous implications unfolded before his mind’s eye. They were truly lost somewhere beyond their wildest nightmares, a totally different world. No help was coming. No hero would be able to reach them. Not even All Might could save them._

_They were alone, and they were not going to return home for a long, long time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was edited by the amazing TMalasia and Ethan Mosie from the Izuocha Discord. Thank you so much, guys!
> 
> Sorry for the second chapter in a row with more "sad" themes. I'll still need a few chapters of set up, but they shouldn't be as sad. Still trying to figure things out, please bear with me.
> 
> So. After thinking for a while about it, I decided to try and do the whole "past-present parallel narrative". It's probably gonna get a lot more complicated than it needs to be, but without it some plot points going forward wouldn't really have the same oomph, so let's try. Because believe it or not, I do actually have a pretty solid outline of where I want this story to go. 
> 
> Speaking of, if you guys wanna have a go at what that hole I described at the end is or means, please try. I think anyone familiar with the old seasons of the Digimon Anime might have a clue, but still. Want to see if I was able to convey this small mistery well enough.
> 
> Speaking of parallel narrative, if you want to see it done well go read Locked in Digital, by TheRogueDruid. I'm pretty sure about 80% of you guys already know who he is, as one of the most proliferous writers for this fandom, but for the other 20 percent that don't... just go read all their stories. They are really good!
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/17292761/chapters/40672001
> 
> Anyway, thoughts? Ideas? Discussions? Leave them all in the comments! And if someone just feels like going on a tangent about Digimon, feel free to!

**Author's Note:**

> First and foremost, a huge thank to Tmalasia, the editor that made this mess I wrote, you know, actually not painful to read. Hes an amazing guy and an exceptional editor. If you ever come across him give him some love. Now, back to business.
> 
> I'm a hack. Lets be honest with ourselves. 
> 
> I've been reading fanfiction for a few years now, and like many, many other people after a while I just decided I wanted to write something myself. I made a few... even calling them attempts might be generous. Mostly I stopped writing after a chapter/ a chapter and a half, fallen prey to what is commonly called "analysis paralysis", "writer's block" and generally getting demoralized over the lack of quality of my writing. So I decided, one day, that I just needed to start writing away, and stop concerning myself too much with the actual quality of the plot, or the wording, or what else. The results are probably kind of bad, but at least they are there, and hey, I can only go upward. I think. 
> 
> This story, as some of you might tell, was strongly inspired by "in which Izuku is apparently eaten by a computer", by the much more experienced writer TheViolentTomboy. I did tell you I was a hack. Go read it. 
> 
> I will probably link other fics, as I progress through the chapters, to many more outstanding stories that finally inspired me to start writing. Any one of those is a thousand times better than anything I will be able to write down for ages, and I strongly suggest you read them, even if the fandoms might not be of your liking. Also, I need to warn you, I tend to gravitate towards long stories, so buckle up and make yourself a cup of tea. Might take a while.


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